Make Your Point > Archived Issues > BEAU IDEAL
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pronounce
BEAU IDEAL:
Say it "BO eye DEEL."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
In your eyes, who's the most beautiful person in the world?
You might say that she's more than beautiful: that she is beauty. That she's the beau ideal.
Or that she's the embodiment of beauty. The epitome of beauty. The quint_____ce of beauty. The apo_____is of beauty.
Could you recall those terms with the blanks?
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
"Beau ideal" is French for "the ideal beautiful." We've used it in English since about 1801.
Strictly speaking, it means "the concept of beauty in its most perfect, ideal form."
And loosely speaking, it means "the best or most perfect kind of beauty or excellence," or, even more loosely, "a thing or person that's the most beautiful, most excellent, or most perfect form or example of something."
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Noun, the countable kind: "Gaston considers himself the beau ideal of manliness."
Other forms:
If you prefer, you can italicize this term to show that it's foreign, or write it as a single word with a hyphen, or keep the French mark over the last "e," or do all three: beau-idéal.
To pluralize "beau ideal," there are actually three ways to do it. If you mean "ideals of beauty," you can use "beaus ideal" (if you prefer a slightly more English-looking plural) or "beaux ideal" (if you prefer a more French-looking plural). And if you mean "people or things that are perfectly beautiful or wonderful," you use "beau ideals."
Why this difference? Basically, you want to use the most English-sounding plural ("beau ideals") when you're using the loosest, most common meaning here in English (the meaning "people or things that are perfectly beautiful or wonderful")--and then you use the more French-sounding plurals when you're sticking to the stricter meaning straight from French ("ideals of beauty").
how to use it:
Like with any rare, fancy, formal, French term, when you use "beau ideal," just be sure you're okay with sounding a little stuffy or a little snobby.
The tone is very positive. To call someone or something "the beau ideal of something" is to give it the highest praise possible: to say that it's not just beautiful, not just excellent, and not just a standard of beauty or excellence--but it's the pinnacle of beauty or excellence; it's as beautiful or as excellent as anyone is able to even conceive of.
examples:
"The shores are clothed in dense forests, and on either hand bold promontories enclose sheltered bays, the very beau ideals of camping places."
— William Denison Lyman, The Columbia River: Its History, Its Myths, Its Scenery, Its Commerce, 1909
"That's the beau ideal of the game [of basketball], five people thinking and feeling as one, the way it's meant to be played."
— Sally Jenkins, Washington Post, 6 June 2017
has this page helped you understand "beau ideal"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "beau ideal" without saying "a perfect specimen" or "the finest example of something."
try it out:
Think of an artist, writer, athlete, leader, or other accomplished person whose work is incredibly outstanding.
Fill in the blanks: "(This person's work) is the beau ideal of _____."
Example: "Roald Dahl's stories are the beau ideal of children's literature."
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game for this month is Rhyming Puzzles!
I'll give you a description of something, and you name it in a rhyming phrase.
Longtime readers will recognize this game from years past, when we grappled with silly answers like "shopworn popcorn," "hidebound guide hound," "cow chow kowtow," "unflagging pun bragging," and "catch-as-catch-can Etch A Sketch fan."
The answers will get longer as the month goes on. To see the clue, click the link. To see the answer, scroll all the way down. Enjoy!
Try this one today:
In an email, one of your professors angrily lectures you about your overly casual use of words. He's screaming at you to stop using the undignified words "okey-doke," "okey-dokey," and "okaly-dokaly" in your papers and in your emails. You write back, "Okey-doke, I'll stop." He replies with another long, angry email. You write back, "Okey-dokey, won't happen again." This continues. He's exhausting himself, and you're having a good time. You're playing a game of ____-___ ____-_-____.
Two words. The first word is three syllables with one hyphen. The second word is three syllables with two hyphens.
Clue: use this word.
review this word:
A. WORST VIABLE PLAN.
B. WORST CONCEIVABLE TYPE.
C. WORST AVAILABLE OPTION.
2.
As explained by Keith Phipps in The Verge, Quentin Tarantino "coined the term 'hang-out movie' to describe... films in which spending time with appealing, memorable characters mattered more than what happened to those characters," and _____ is "the beau ideal of such a movie."
A. visual appeal
B. Tarantino himself
C. the film Rio Bravo
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
On vocabulary...
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.
From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
In your eyes, who's the most beautiful person in the world?
"Beau ideal" is French for "the ideal beautiful." We've used it in English since about 1801.
Part of speech:
Like with any rare, fancy, formal, French term, when you use "beau ideal," just be sure you're okay with sounding a little stuffy or a little snobby.
"The shores are clothed in dense forests, and on either hand bold promontories enclose sheltered bays, the very beau ideals of camping places."
Explain the meaning of "beau ideal" without saying "a perfect specimen" or "the finest example of something."
Think of an artist, writer, athlete, leader, or other accomplished person whose work is incredibly outstanding.
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. |