The sunset over the ocean was so ____ that tourists stopped to take pictures.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The sunset over the ocean was truly ____, with many bright colors city.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *dewh₂-der.?
Proto-Italic *dwenos
Old Latin duenos
Old Latin *duenelos
Vulgar Latin bellus
Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-ts
Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts
Proto-Italic *-tāts
Vulgar Latin -itātem
Vulgar Latin *bellitātem
Anglo-Norman biautébor.
Middle English beaute
Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁-
Proto-Indo-European *-nós
Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós
Proto-Germanic *fullaz
Proto-Germanic *-fullaz
Old English -ful
Middle English -ful
Middle English bewteful
English beautiful
From Middle English bewteful, beautefull (“attractive to the eye, beautiful”), equivalent to beauty + -ful. In this sense, largely displaced Old English fæġer (whence fair).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[A]s amongſt the Moores, the Iettieſt blacke are deem'd / The beautifulſt of them; […]"
— 1622, Michael Drayton, “The Sixe and Twentieth Song”, in The Second Part, or A Continuance of Poly-Olbion from the Eighteenth Song. […], London: […] Augustine Mathewes for Iohn Marriott, Iohn Grismand, and Thomas Dewe, →OCLC, page 124:
"“Is Olga de Coude very beautiful?” she asked. And Tarzan laughed and kissed her again. “Not one-tenth so beautiful as you, dear,” he said."
— 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 214:
"It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion."
— 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
"It is a beautiful kitchen! — It is beautiful."
— 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain):