See, I wouldn’t hesitate to call her ugly-- or at any rate, homely (she does have some good features, like her hair, and her figure is modelesque), but somehow she carries it well. I don’t know what she does exactly, but she makes it work. She’s sui generis, though, I think, and not an example of anything we’re discussing.
She’s not the only person I’ve even seen (I’ve known some personally) who are not objectively beautiful, but somehow give the impression of beauty. I don’t know what you’d call that. It’s probably some coalescence of self-confidence, good posture, and clear skin. It’s a fascinating quality, whatever it is.
I use to watch Miss America etc. when I was in high school and thought that most were really beautiful and some were pretty sexy. Later I realized these girls were in their early 20’s at the oldest and not in their 30’s! There seems to something about “beautiful” that implies premature adult development. Later I have noticed that many of these women became only “handsome” mature women whereas “cute” lasts much longer.
On a way different note…I once read a serious scientific propositon that dinosaurs were likely warm blooded because, like baby mammals and birds, baby dinosaurs were cute! Baby reptiles just look like small versions of adult reptiles.
That’s pretty good, but you missed out sexy. Someone else said that sexy was “you want to have sex with them,” but that’s false. It’s that they seem like they’d be great in bed - you don’t have to be the one wanting to go to bed with them. Not that they’d require a bed.
In the TV series Rome, for example, Attia was too old to be either pretty or cute (this picture and most of the other stills I could find make her look younger than she is), and somewhat had the definitions of beautiful. But sexy? Especially if you saw her in movement rather than in a picture? Yes. Hell yes.
If you were in room of people, as soon as she walked in a few eyes would turn, then a few more would turn as they saw the way she walked, then most of the rest would turn when they talked to her or saw her talking to people.
Cate Blanchett has always been beautiful. I suspect she was never cute or pretty and she’s not usually considered sexy. I’ve taught girls and young women who were beautiful; your first instinct is to want to paint or photograph them even if you’ve never done so in your life. It was interesting to see the way the boys in the class reacted to them as opposed to the pretty girls: the beautiful ones were treated as out of reach for the most part unless there was an unusually good-looking or just arrogant boy. The other boys in those classes didn’t tease the beautiful girl much even when she was single.
Yeah, exotic means “unusual, or looks good but I’m not sure why.” My GF’s ex, who is German, sort of, was described by my GF’s friends as being exotic and I can see it despite her being blonde. Basically, if you described her individual features they wouldn’t really add up to beautiful or pretty, but the overall effect is aesthetically appealling. “Striking” could be the other word.
You could also just say good-looking to convey the idea that she looks good in some way. Unfortunately that’s mostly applied to men.
Some people (not all people) can go between beautiful, pretty, cute and sexy based on their presentation. I could in my twenties, my daughter can (although at fifteen, beautiful is difficult and sexy can be inappropriate, but both can be done - she is certainly both cute and pretty). Audrey Hepburn could pull off any of the above (although sexy for her was more difficult than beautiful, cute or pretty). Marilyn Monroe had no issues with sexy or beautiful, but early photos of her can be cute or pretty before she slipped into her permanent sexy image.
In my mind and the minds of sensible people everywhere, Jewish girls are as gorgeous as anyone. Among anyone who would actually use the phrase “pretty for a Jewish girl” they probably do mean your interpretation.
There’s no precise definition. People are going to have their own definitions and nuances with generally broad overlap.
In my opinion, pretty and beautiful are a matter of degree. You could throw gorgeous into the mix too. I don’t buy into the idea that beautiful is something you mature into or classical vs contemporary anything like that. A beautiful or gorgeous woman is just a woman who is so pretty you needed a fancier word.
Technically there are a lot of women who I’d describe as pretty who I would never describe as beautiful or gorgeous because they’re just not that pretty, but I don’t routinely grade women like that. It seems kind of creepy. In practice I’d describe a woman as beautiful or gorgeous if I wanted to clearly communicate that she’s exceptionally pretty. It’s not like there are women who are so beautiful that you can’t also call them pretty.
Contrarily, cute actually means something slightly different. Tons of attractive women aren’t particularly cute. Cute can also be polysemic. Sometimes a woman might be described as cute to avoid insulting her, but to also make it clear she’s not the kind of attractive you personally desire. I think that’s something you’d expect to hear from a young person or very insecure person.
On the other hand, most of the women I dated were cute and I certainly didn’t mean it euphemistically. I agree with RivkahChaya that cuteness is a lot about neoteneous features. A woman can have a great body or be very pretty and still have neoteny, so being cute doesnt necessarily bar other adjectives.
Any woman can be sexy in context. I think most of the time sexy is used it’s contextual. Even if you’re describing a woman you’re not sexually or emotionally intimate with, a lot of the time she looks sexy in a particular dress or when she does her hair a certain way. You’re not obligated to feel that way at all times.
On the other hand, some women do have a type of attractiveness that’s just inherently sexy. I’m not exactly sure why but I think part of it is a lack of those youthful features that make other women cute. A sexy woman is the type of woman some judgmental jackass would describe as a slut without knowing anything at all about her sexual history.
I have to respectfully disagree, because I think pretty is somewhat youth-dependent. There are some women who remain pretty through middle age, while the majority of women can manage to pull of pretty when they are 20. Pretty always fades, though, but beauty doesn’t, of doesn’t have to, and sometimes even improves with maturity. Lillian Gish was beautiful to the end, which for her was age 99, and very pretty when young, still passably pretty into her 40s, but you really couldn’t call her pretty once she hit 50, or so.
Youth isn’t the same thing as neoteny, just to be clear. The bow mouths, button noses, and round eyes of neoteny are more childlike than youthful. Very, very rarely, someone can carry cute into age. Google a picture of Shirley Temple Black near the end of her life, if you don’t believe me (sometimes her make-up was overdone, but she still had a bow mouth, tiny nose and round eyes, and was definitely “cute”).
Now, in response to Fuzzy Dunlop, in the “beautiful” is “pretty+n,” I will say that beauty is a rarer quality than prettiness, and most young, beautiful women are also fairly described as pretty, so yeah, that formula would seem to hold, but I think it’s just a coincidence.
I now think I may just not be old enough yet to get the age aspect of it. I can certainly see attractiveness fade in some people much more than in others, but not how that differentiates prettiness and beauty.
Or in other words, I couldn’t personally look at a slew of extremely attractive 21 year olds and predict which will look better at 55. I might single out a heavy drinker or tanning addict as someone whose beauty will fade rapidly, of course. Or I might realize certain types of thin women carry excess weight really horrible while others pull it off well. But those are very specific things and I suspect not at all what you meant.
My wife actually is young, and looks younger still for her age, but she’s not cute. I was actually wondering why that is, especially since I’ve dated mostly cute women. You’re right - She looks youthful but she doesn’t have childlike features.
In addition I would say that behavior plays a role as well. Just the other day I was hanging out with a girl that could easily be called pretty or beautiful when she was just sitting there with a neutral expression on her face, but when I was talking with her she was so bubbly and goofy, that cute would be the term I would use. In other words: a beautiful girl with a goofy smile on her face, quickly becomes cute.
She’s not pretty, she’s not beautiful, though she’s got a bit of cute going on, and she’s kind of funny looking …
… but damned if she isn’t one of the sexiest young women I’ve ever seen.
One of the things about “sexy” is that you have to see the woman in motion, and hear her speak. Still photos can convey pretty/beautiful/cute, but sexy has to be heard, and must be seen in motion. I haven’s seen Natalie Dormer yet in the most recent Hunger Games movie, since it hasn’t arrived on Netflix yet, but I’ve watched her as Marjorie Tyrell on Game of Thrones, and I’ve seen her as herself on various talk shows. My God, I would move Heaven and Earth to get with her.
