Where does pulchritude come from?

The first records of pulchritude in English come from around the 1400s. It comes from the Latin word pulchritūdō, meaning “beauty.” The adjective pulchritudinous began to appear in the early 1700s and gained popularity in the 1800s with American authors who started using the word because it was humorously long and overly complicated.

Pulchritude doesn’t sound like it means “beauty,” and that’s usually precisely why it’s used—to be ironic, facetious, or just silly. Because there are many more common words that could be used instead, pulchritude is a word most people either don’t know or avoid using so as not to cause confusion. But if you want to get fancy or a bit cheeky, pulchritude is a beautiful choice. The adjective form pulchritudinous is perhaps more common, though still uncommon in general.