handsome

What it means

1. Having a pleasing appearance, good-looking, attractive, particularly

   That is one handsome tree you've got there.

   5 more examples

   I saw, I confess, some good dancing and some handsome women, which was all my pleasure.

   1661–1669 (date written; Gregorian calendar), Samuel Pepys, Mynors Bright, transcriber, “(please specify the entry date)”, in Henry B[enjamin] Wheatley, editor, The Diary of Samuel Pepys […], volume (please specify |volume=I to X), London: George Bell & Sons […]; Cambridge: Deighton Bell & Co., published 1893–1899, →OCLC

   At the farther end of this great lamp-lit apartment was another doorway closed in with heavy Oriental-looking curtains, quite unlike those that hung before the doors of our own rooms, and here stood two particularly handsome girl mutes, their heads bowed upon their bosoms and their hands crossed in an attitude of humble submission.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   On the opposite side of the street, on the corner, is the city hall, a very handsome building of brick and stone.

   1916, On H.R. 4683, site for post-office building at Chicago, Ill, page 117

   The mother, Ekaterina Pavlovna, who at one time had been handsome, but now, asthmatic, depressed, vague, and over-feeble for her years, tried to entertain me with conversation about painting. Having heard from her daughter that I might come to Shelkovka, she had hurriedly recalled two or three of my landscapes which she had seen in exhibitions in Moscow, and now asked what I meant to express by them.

   1917, Anton Chekhov, translated by Constance Garnett, The Darling and Other Stories, Project Gutenberg, →ISBN, page 71

   In recent times the Samoyed, one of the handsomest breeds, has become popular as a show dog in England and the U.S.

   1993, Funk & Wagnalls Corporation, Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, volume 23, page 106

2. Having a pleasing appearance, good-looking, attractive
   1. Of a man or boy: attractively manly, having a pleasing face and overall effect.

      I was struck dumb. Here was the most handsome man I’d ever seen in my life coming out of the surf.

      1 more example

      Scott was a man then who looked like a boy with a face between handsome and pretty. He had very fair wavy hair, a high forehead, excited and friendly eyes and a delicate long-lipped Irish mouth that, on a girl, would have been the mouth of a beauty. His chin was well built and he had good ears and a handsome, almost beautiful, unmarked nose.

      1964, Ernest Hemingway, “Scott Fitzgerald”, in A Moveable Feast, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 149

   2. Of a woman: statuesque, beautiful in a masculine or otherwise imposing way.

      She was either handsome or her uniform created a flattering effect but—being very nearsighted—he couldn't tell from this distance.

In a sentence

That is one handsome tree you've got there.

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Germanic*handuz
2. Proto-West Germanic*handu
3. Old Englishhand
4. Middle Englishhond
5. Proto-Indo-European*sem-
6. Proto-Indo-European*somHós
7. Proto-Germanic*samaz
8. Middle Englishhondsom
9. Englishhandsome

From Middle English handsum, hondsom, equivalent to hand + -some. Compare Dutch handzaam, German Low German handsaam. The original sense was “easy to handle or use”, hence “suitable” and “apt, clever” (mid-16th century), giving rise to the current appreciatory senses (late 16th century).