beau ideal
Preserved but no longer current.
Properly, the ideal Beautiful, the abstract idea of beauty, ideal, m the French, being the adjective, and beau, the substantive: but in English the parts played by the words are usually transposed, and thus have come to mean the ideal type or model of anything in its most consummate perfection.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “beau ideal” mean?
Properly, the ideal Beautiful, the abstract idea of beauty, ideal, m the French, being the adjective, and beau, the substantive: but in English the parts played by the words are usually transposed, and thus have come to mean the ideal type or model of anything in its most consummate perfection.
Is “beau ideal” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.