pulcher formosus venustus speciosus which is strongest

Latin Learning Latin
1

There are a lot of words for beautiful but how do they relate to each other in degree?
bellus, pulcher, formosus, venustus, speciosus, which to strongest
so you could say femina bella est, non speciosa est! Or whatever. Thank you

2

Pulcher seems to be more often used of men than venustus (Suetonius about Nero: Fuit vultu pulcro magis, quam venusto). According to Forcellini, pulcher denotes a certain dignity or majesty which is not necessarily present in venustus. Formosus is more “comely” or “shapely”. Speciosus is slightly more “beautiful to the sight”, and bellus is more “charming” than “beautiful”. See Godmy’s Digital Forcellini for more details.

3

Thank you
and especially for the Forcellinni link :slight_smile:

4

There’s also sociolinguistic register to be taken into account. bellus is more colloquial than pulcher, for example.

venustus often retains its connexion with Venus (e.g. Catullus 3 and 22).

So as rothbard implied it’s not really a question of degree at all. There’s no sliding scale.