When describing someone’s appearance, you might refer to their build as athletic or their facial structure as handsome. And while these familiar adjectives are effective, they are also relatively generic and don’t paint a very detailed picture.
Instead of defaulting to the same old descriptors, it’s worth broadening your vocabulary by adding a few more expressive and interesting alternatives. Here’s a look at 10 appearance adjectives to give your verbal portraiture more color and specificity.
In relation to physical appearance, the word “sanguine” is defined by Merriam-Webster as “having a healthy red complexion.” It’s often associated with a cheerful temperament — think Santa and his rosy cheeks. “Sanguine” was coined in the 14th century from the Latin sanguis, meaning “blood.” It’s also related to a common belief from the Middle Ages that having well-balanced levels of blood resulted in being strong and confident and boasting a healthy reddish glow. While science has since disproved this, the idea gave us “sanguine,” which remains in use today.
English speakers have been using “fastidious” since the mid-15th century, though it now has a different meaning than the Latin from which it’s derived. It comes from the word fastidium, meaning “aversion or disgust.” In fact, “fastidious” once meant that something was disgusting. But over time the adjective shed that unsavory connotation, and we now use it to describe something “excessively careful or detailed.” As an example, you might refer to someone who takes great pride in their personal grooming routine as fastidious, especially if they carefully shape their beard or always wear perfectly pressed clothes.
In a very literal sense, a patrician was a member of the original families of ancient Rome. But since 1533, the word has been used as a more figurative adjective to describe physical features that give the impression of nobility. For instance, prominent cheekbones and a furrowed brow are considered patrician, as they’re similar to the characteristics seen on ancient Roman statues depicting great statesmen and others of high rank.
If someone is drop-dead gorgeous, they could aptly be described as pulchritudinous. While the sound of it doesn’t quite match the meaning, this adjective is derived from the Latin pulcher, meaning “beautiful.” The noun version, “pulchritude,” dates to around 1400, but according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, it was made into an adjective more recently. “Pulchritudinous” was coined in 1840 in a humorous piece found in a Boston-area newspaper.
“Voluminous,” from the Latin volumen, dates to the early 17th century. The Latin word referred to a rolled-up wreath with writing on it and later came to describe works that contained many written volumes — nothing to do with appearance. Today it’s defined as anything “marked by great volume or bulk,” including the luscious locks found on a thick head of hair, or the impressive muscles of a bodybuilder.
In Latin, the word aquila means “eagle” — a bird defined, in part, by its lengthy, hooked beak. By the late 16th century, this gave rise to the term “aquiline,” used to describe any human with a nose possessing a broad curve and slight hook, much like an eagle’s beak.
If someone is bald or just returned from the spa after getting a fresh wax, they could be described as glabrous. This term, meaning “having a surface without hairs,” has been used in that context since 1640. It comes from the Latin glaber, which translates to “bald.” The word is also frequently used in more clinical scientific contexts, in reference to skin that was never covered with hair to begin with.
The word “alabaster” means “usually white and translucent gypsum often carved into vases and ornaments.” While that usage has been around since the 14th century, a more figurative definition came about in the 1570s, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary. People began using “alabaster” in reference to pale, smooth skin with a similar texture and tone to those alabaster vases and ornaments.
“Euryprosopic” describes a short, broad face, derived from the Greek words eury (meaning “wide”) and prosōpon (“face”). It’s the opposite of “leptoprosopic” — a term for a person with a long, narrow face (lepto is Greek for “thin” or “slender”).
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