Loathly Lady
Preserved but no longer current.
A stock character of the old romances who is so hideous that everyone is deterred from marrying her. When, however, she at last finds a husband her ugliness — the effect of enchantment — disappears, and she becomes a model of beauty. Her story — a very common one, in which sometimes the en- chanted beauty has to assume the shape of a serpent or some hideous monster — is the feminine counterpart of that of "Beauty and the Beast'* (q.v.).
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 “Loathly Lady” mean?
A stock character of the old romances who is so hideous that everyone is deterred from marrying her. When, however, she at last finds a husband her ugliness — the effect of enchantment — disappears, and she becomes a model of beauty. Her story — a very common one, in which sometimes the en- chanted beauty has to assume the shape of a serpent or some hideous monster — is the feminine counterpart of that of "Beauty and the Beast'* (q.v.).
Is “Loathly Lady” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.