Love this word. Where's it come from? And is there a similar word for men?

Pulchritude was Dictionary.com's "Word Of The Day" on 16 April 2001.

Yes, it's a good word. It comes from the Latin pulcher, "beautiful".

The equivalent for men is probably handsomeness. If you wand a word of Latin origin, try virility, from virilis "manliness", which in turn comes from vir, "man".

The Latin suffix -(i)tudo, -(i)tudinis, means something like English -ness (or -hood). It usually can be added to an adjective to turn it into an abstract noun: e.g., altitude (highness), amplitude (largeness), latitude (wideness), attitude (via Italian from Latin aptitutdo; aptitude, faculty, aptness), longitude (length), multitude (quality of being numerous), magnitude (bigness), lassitude (weariness), servitude (from Latin servus 'slave', a noun; subjection to a master), pinguitude (fatness).

Pulcher means pretty or handsome. (so, it's an example of how words change slightly in connotation when borrowed from another language, cf. decimate.) A synonym is formosus, so maybe the nonce word formositude could be applied to men. This word didn't exist in Latin, but a Roman would probably understand what was meant. Formositas, formositatis, 'beauty' did exist. The suffix -itas, -itatis, is another one like -(i)tudo above; it is the origin of English words in -ity: e.g., virility from vir 'man' > virilis 'manly' > virilitas 'manliness'.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: zmježd,

I rather like that term. Formositude beautifully merits a mellifluously masculine sound, not to mention it makes a rather creative portmanteau.

Is it pronounced for-MOSE-i-tude or for-MAHS-i-tude? Just curious.

quote:

Is it pronounced for-MOSE-i-tude or for-MAHS-i-tude? Just curious.

That would depend which side of the Atlantic you live.

Is it pronounced for-MOSE-i-tude or for-MAHS-i-tude?

I'd pronounce it /fɔɹˈmoʊsɪˌtʊd/, based pretty much as I pronounce the old name of Taiwan as /fɔɹˈmoʊsə/. In casual speech, the /ɪ/ in the suffix -itude is more likely realized as a [ə]. That's out here on the Left Coast of Leftpondia. It would probably be different in British English, with a third pronunciation, i.e., the correct one, in Richard's English.

[References: IPA chart for English (link) on Wikipedia; a page on learning the IPA for (American) English (link); Professor Ladefoged's UCLA Phonetics Lab Data (link) with lots of sound files.]