beau

Etymology

Borrowed from French beau, from Latin bellus (“beautiful”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bəʊ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /boʊ/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Homophone: bow
• Rhymes: -əʊ

Noun

beau (plural beaux or beaus)

1. (dated) A man with a reputation for fine dress and etiquette; a dandy or fop.
   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, chapter 21

     “I do not comprehend the meaning of the word. But this I can say, that if he ever was a beau before he married, he is one still, for there is not the smallest alteration in him.”

     “Oh! dear! one never thinks of married mens’^[sic] being beaux—they have something else to do.”

2. (dated) A male lover; a boyfriend.
   • 1917, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, p. 142:

     Hannah's beau takes all her time 'n' thought, and when she gits a husband her mother'll be out o' sight and out o' mind.

   • 2009, Philippa Bourke, Monsters and Critics , Dec 10, 2009:

     Kristin Davis has taken time out to enjoy the surf and sand with her Australian beau, photographer Russell James.

3. A male escort.

See also

• beau-
• beautiful
• Beau

References

• beau in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

• Aube, aube

Etymology

From Latin bibō. Compare Romanian bea, beau.

Verb

beau (third-person present singular indicative bea, past participle biutã)

1. I drink

Etymology

From Middle French beau, from Old French biau, bel, from Latin bellus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bo/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o
• Homophones: bau, baux, beaux, bot, bots

Adjective

beau (masculine singular before vowel bel, feminine singular belle, masculine plural beaux, feminine plural belles)

1. handsome, fine, attractive
2. nice
3. fair (weather)

   Il fait beau.

   It is nice out.

Noun

beau m (plural beaux)

1. (Louisiana) boyfriend

Further reading

• “beau” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• aube

Alternative forms

• bel

Etymology

From Old French beau, one of the variants of biau.

Adjective

beau m (feminine singular belle, masculine plural beaux, feminine plural belles)

1. beautiful; handsome; attractive

Adjective

beau m (oblique and nominative feminine singular bele)

1. Alternative form of biau
   • circa 1190, Marie de France, Lai de Isclavret:

     beaus chevalers e bons esteit
     e noblement se cunteneit.

     Hansome knight and good was he
     and he behaved nobly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [bʲæw]

Verb

beau

1. first-person singular present indicative of bea.
2. first-person singular present subjunctive of bea.
3. third-person plural present indicative of bea.
4. third-person plural imperfect indicative of bea.