Etymology

beauty

beau·ty
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Today it means: The quality of being (especially visually) attractive, pleasing, fine or good-looking; comeliness. Full definition →

Middle English beaute ← Anglo-Norman biauté ← Vulgar Latin *bellitātem
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*dewh₂-der.?
  2. Proto-Italic*dwenos
  3. Old Latinduenos
  4. Old Latin*duenelos
  5. Latinbellus
  6. Vulgar Latin*bellitātem
  7. Anglo-Normanbiauté
  8. Middle Englishbeaute
  9. English todaybeauty

From Middle English bewty, bewte, beaute, bealte, from Anglo-Norman and Old French beauté (early Old French spelling biauté), from Vulgar Latin *bellitātem (“beauty”), from Latin bellus (“beautiful, fair”); see beau. In this sense, mostly displaced native Old English fæġernes, whence Modern English fairness.

Words from the same roots

Old Frenchbeauté all →

beautify

Latinbellus all →

beaubeautifybaublebeldame

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.