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"Words of Wisdom...?" pulchritude \PUHL-kruh-tood\ (noun) : physical comeliness : beauty Example sentence: "You must not hold my pulchritude against me, for I surely did not ask for it, and even if I had, beauty is neither a crime nor sign of doltishness," declared Laura. This word comes to us from Merriam-Webster dictionaries�. as does the example sentence. Hmn� this would not go over well in everyday conversation. Why is it that some words really sound like quite their opposite? Pulchritude sounds more like, say, repulsive� or perhaps 'ugly as sin'. Beauty? Not likely! Well the folks at Webster looked into the history of the word, always a wonderful way to understand language. In this particular case however it just gets worse! Since the 15th century, pulchritude has been used in its present form. It's a descendant of the Latin verb "pulcher", which means "beautiful." "You are pulcher, baby!", would likely get you slapped. Off springs include "pulchrify" - a synonym of beauty, "pulchtritudeness" - meaning the same thing as pulchtritude, and "pulchrious" - meaning fair or beautiful. John Keats once said, "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." Somehow it doesn't work the same way if you say, "A thing of pulchrify is a joy forever." Makes me think more of say rotting meat. Keats chose well when he chose beauty over pultrify� wouldn't you agree? The Latin origins don't help us in this case, I'm afraid. And it just sounds horrible! Yet it means beauty. I suppose there is a message here� well a few messages really. First, when your wife asks,"Honey, do I look fat in these jeans?" Never ever reply with, "Baby you look absolutely pulchrious!" At the least you will end up getting slapped HARD and spend the rest of your evening explaining Latin origins and trying to find the word in a dictionary to prove you are innocent as charged. At the worst you'll be getting divorce papers in the mail� reason cited as "mental cruelty" for calling her names. The other message, well a bit deeper but it's in there - to find true beauty you have to look within. There is beauty in pulchritude�. You have to look deeper to find it. To its origins, its definition� The same can be said of people, can it not? Perhaps looking into their origins, where they came from or why they are so damned hard to live with� and perhaps by showing them kindness or understanding, we can show them the beauty deep within them. Look to a person's definition, their defining quality� perhaps they are a real jerk - but a talented one; a gifted artist perhaps or simply good with numbers... If we don't learn people skills as a child, perhaps we will always be a jerk, lacking in social graces, hard to get along with� but that does not mean the person is any less valuable or important. Beauty lies within� look deep; you can see it if only you take the time to try. To see the inner beauty in a person who is physically unattractive to you is easier than someone who is grating in his or her personality. But to see the beauty in those of us who are less than perfect - meaning essentially every person on earth, for not one of us is perfect - that is the true beauty in life. Life is a pulchrious experience indeed� don't miss a moment of it. Rebecca A Crescitelli � 1999 Rebecca A. Crescitelli Did you know that a work that is created (fixed in tangible form for the first time) on or after January 1, 1978, is automatically protected from the moment of its creation and is ordinarily given a term enduring for the author�s life plus an additional 50 years after the author�s death? So if you use my column, ask me first! After all, I'm not even dead yet let alone the 50 years... "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." -Dr. Seuss, The Lorax "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." ~~Gandhi "Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein | ||||||||||||||||
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