Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Overuse of the Word Beautiful

It's typical to hear Spanish/Catalan speakers overuse the word 'beautiful'. In English we use nice, pretty, attractive, lovely and cute rather than beautiful. Beautiful is often saved for top of the range gorgeousness, rather than something we may see every day. 

Also, we often use beautiful to describe something we can see, rather than something we have experienced. There are exceptions to this, but they are meaningful exceptions. 

Today, find more adjectives for the word ‘beautiful’.

The following is taken from Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Main Entry: beau·ti·ful 
Pronunciation: \ˈbyü-ti-fəl\
Function: adjective
Date: 15th century
1 : having qualities of beauty : exciting aesthetic pleasure
2 : generally pleasing : excellent
— beau·ti·ful·ly  \-f(ə-)lē\ adverb
— beau·ti·ful·ness  \-fəl-nəs\ noun
synonyms beautifullovelyhandsomeprettycomelyfair mean exciting sensuous or aesthetic pleasure. beautifulapplies to whatever excites the keenest of pleasure to the senses and stirs emotion through the senses <beautiful mountain scenery>lovely is close to beautiful but applies to a narrower range of emotional excitation in suggesting the graceful, delicate, or exquisite lovely melody>handsome suggests aesthetic pleasure due to proportion, symmetry, or elegance handsome Georgian mansion>pretty often applies to superficial or insubstantial attractiveness pretty scenes>comely is like handsome in suggesting what is coolly approved rather than emotionally responded to comely grace of a dancer>fair suggests beauty because of purity, flawlessness, or freshness <fair of face>.

What adjectives could you use for the following photographs, instead of beautiful? 












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