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beau
5 dictionary results for: Beau
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
beau       [boh] Pronunciation Key noun, plural beaus, beaux       [bohz] Pronunciation Key, verb
–noun
1.a frequent and attentive male companion.
2.a male escort for a girl or woman.
3.a dandy; fop.
–verb (used with object)
4.to escort (a girl or woman), as to a social gathering.
[Origin: 1250–1300; ME < F < L bellus beautiful]

—Related forms
beauish, adjective

—Synonyms 3. peacock, swell, blade, dude, coxcomb.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
beau       (bō)  Pronunciation Key 
n.   pl. beaus or beaux (bōz)
  1. The boyfriend of a woman or girl.
  2. A dandy; a fop.


[French, from beau, bel, handsome, from Latin bellus; see deu-2 in Indo-European roots.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
beau 
"attendant suitor of a lady," 1720, from Fr. beau "the beautiful," n. use of adj., from O.Fr. bel, from L. bellus "handsome, fine," dim. of bonus "good." Meaning "man who attends excessively to dress, etiquette, etc.; a fop; a dandy" is 1687, short for Fr. beau garçon "pretty boy" (c.1665). Beaumonde "the fashionable world" is from 1714. Beau-ideal (1801) is from Fr. beau idéal "the ideal beauty, beautifulness as an abstract ideal," in which beau is the subject, but as Eng. usually puts the adj. first, the sense has shifted in Eng. toward "perfect type or model." Beaux arts "the fine arts" is 1821, from Fr.; also in reference to Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and the widely imitated conventional type of art and architecture advocated there.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
beau

noun
1. a man who is the lover of a girl or young woman; "if I'd known he was her boyfriend I wouldn't have asked" [syn: boyfriend] 
2. a man who is much concerned with his dress and appearance [syn: dandy] 

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Beau

Beau\, n.; pl. F. Beaux (E. pron. b?z), E. Beaus. [F., a fop, fr. beau fine, beautiful, fr. L. bellus pretty, fine, for bonulus, dim. of bonus good. See Bounty, and cf. Belle, Beauty.]

1. A man who takes great care to dress in the latest fashion; a dandy.

2. A man who escorts, or pays attentions to, a lady; an escort; a lover.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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