beauty

\ \ [13] Beauty came via Anglo-Norman beute and Old French bealte from Vulgar Latin *bellitas, a derivative of Latin bellus ‘beautiful’ (this developed from an earlier, unrecorded *dwenolos, a diminutive form of Old Latin *duenos, *duonos, which is related to Latin bonus ‘good’ – source of English bonus [18], bounty [13], and bounteous [14]). Other English words from the same ultimate source are beau [17] and its feminine form belle [17]; beatific [17], which comes from Latin beātus ‘blessed, happy’, the past participle of the verb beāre, a relative of bellus; embellish; and bibelot ‘small ornament’ [19], originally a French word based ultimately on *belbel, a reduplication of Old French bel ‘beautiful’. English beautiful is 15th century.

\ \ Cf.⇒ BEAU, BELLE, BEATIFIC, BIBELOT, BONUS, BOUNTY, EMBELLISH