Pulchritude

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

How are you there? My name is John Paul, and I’m in Tallahassee, Florida.

Hi, John. Welcome to the program.

Thank you very much.

What can we do you for?

Well, I’m a fan of the TV show, The West Wing.

I have the complete box set, and every once in a while I pull out the videos and just sit for a few hours.

And one of the later seasons, I think it might have been the last season, but Brian Dennehy is playing a senator from Florida, and they were trying to send one of the interns from the White House, one of the female interns, and he was commenting that you sent me someone with some pulchritude.

And I found that to be a very interesting word because it just didn’t sound right.

So I looked it up and it’s just a word that you don’t hear very much.

And I don’t know why it went out of fashion because it actually explains the situation perfectly.

Well, let me ask you this.

Do you think that pulchritude is a beautiful word itself?

No.

Yeah, I don’t either.

I don’t either.

Some people do.

It means beauty, but I think it’s not a very pretty word.

So Brian Denny’s character, I haven’t seen that season.

Was he a bit of a kind of foghorn leghorn in that he spoke big and talked big and had a way with,

He was very stentorian and used long words and that sort of thing?

Well, you know, he was a very old senator from Florida.

He would offer orange juice to his visitors and would add some vodka to his own.

Sure.

That’s a great description of somebody.

So he’s an older guy who might find pulchritude in his mouth comfortably.

Let me rephrase that.

I would guess so.

When you hear it, I thought they were being, and here’s another funny word, pejorative regarding the female.

You thought pulchritude was a negative word.

Yeah, I thought it was a negative word.

But she was beautiful, this woman.

But yes, it means beautiful.

But, you know, how do you use it?

Is it a noun?

Is it an adjective?

Is it an adverb?

Well, does one use it at all is the question.

Oh, that’s true, too.

Oh, I hear it all the time.

Oh, do you?

Yeah.

Martha and her polkertude.

On the phone, though, right?

Not face-to-face?

The truth is I rarely hear the word polkertude.

And I think because it’s not a pretty word.

You know, I mean, I wouldn’t put it past Aaron Sorkin to use it because he’s a smart guy.

He’s the guy that writes West Wing, right?

Yeah, I mean, I do have a special affection for this word, John Paul, because I learned it when I was taking Latin, because about a third of the way through your Latin course, you’ll come across the word pulcher, which means beautiful.

And, you know, but it’s not even beautiful in Latin, I don’t think.

You know, you talk about puela pulcra, meaning beautiful girl, and it’s just, puela pulcra is just too plosive, you know.

Sounds like a plucked chicken.

Yeah.

A plucked polio.

So, I don’t know, is it a word that you’re going to start using?

I don’t think so.

Yeah.

I just found that, you know, the character used it so freely and easily, and I just figured it was just an Old South word.

It’s an old word.

I would probably classify this as what they call an inkhorn term, which is a long word for a short idea that’s pulled out in order to make the writer feel august, make the writer feel a little important about him or herself.

But thanks for sharing the word with us.

And it’s definitely old-fashioned.

You can use it if you want, but you’re going to get a lot of weird looks, John Paul.

I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

Take care.

All right. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Television brings us new language, particularly if you’ve got the writing talents of Aaron Sorkin to observe.

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