# beauty spot
## English
### Etymology

From beauty (noun) +‎ spot (noun). Some uses of sense 1 (“thing which is beautiful”) are figurative uses of sense 1.2 (“patch on the face to heighten beauty”).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈbjuːtɪ ˌspɒt/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) IPA: /ˈbjuti ˌspɑt/, [-ɾi-]
* Hyphenation: beau‧ty spot

### Noun

beauty spot (plural beauty spots)
* (archaic) A thing (especially an aspect of something) which is beautiful.
** 1682, John Bunyan, “[Diabolus has No Conscience to God, nor Love to Mansoul]”, in The Holy War, Made by Shaddai upon Diabolus, for the Regaining of the Metropolis of the World. […], London: […] Dorman Newman […]; and Benjamin Alsop […], →OCLC, pages 129–130:But if righteounſeſs be ſuch a beauty-ſpot in thine eyes novv, hovv is it that vvickedneſs vvas ſo cloſely ſtuck to by thee before.
** 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXI. Mr. Lovelace, to John Belford, Esq.”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume IV, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], →OCLC, page 242:I need not deſcribe to thee her hand and arm. VVhen thou ſavveſt her, I took notice that thy eyes dvvelt upon them, vvhenever thou couldſt ſpare them from that beauty-ſpot of vvonders, her face.
** A natural mark on a person's skin, especially a freckle or mole on a woman's face.
    Synonym: beauty mark
** (cosmetics, historical) A patch or spot drawn or placed on the face in order to heighten beauty.
    Synonyms: beauty mark, mouche
*** 1701, Nehemiah Grew, “Of the Ends of Providence. And First, in this Life.”, in Cosmologia Sacra: Or A Discourse of the Universe as It is the Creature and Kingdom of God. […], London: […] W[illiam] Rogers, S[amuel] Smith, and B[enjamin] Walford: […], →OCLC, 3rd book, paragraph 49, page 102:The Deformity, and Filthyneſs of Svvine, make them the Beauty-ſpot of the Animal Creation, and the Emblem of all Vice.Used figuratively to refer to a thing which enhances the attractiveness of something else.
** (ornithology, archaic) Synonym of speculum (“a bright, lustrous patch of colour found on the wings of ducks and some other birds, usually situated on the distal portions of the secondary quills, and much more brilliant in the adult male than in the female”)
* (chiefly British) A place noted for its beauty, especially its natural scenery.
** [1879], Christina G[eorgina] Rossetti, “Mountains and Hills”, in Seek and Find: A Double Series of Short Studies of the Benedicte. […], London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge […]; New York, N.Y.: Pott, Young, & Co., →OCLC, 1st series (Creation), page 91:Moreover they [mountains] bestow necessaries not in mere naked sufficiency, but in forms which make hill-streams and waterfalls rank among the beauty-spots of this beautiful world: […]
** 1960 March, J. P. Wilson, E. N. C. Haywood, “The Route through the Peak – Derby to Manchester: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 155:The building of the railway in this notable beauty spot roused the great Victorian writer John Ruskin to fury.
** 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 270, about Lustleigh:Another local beauty spot is Lustleigh Cleave, where the River Bovey flows through an avenue of trees.

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ “beauty spot, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2021; “beauty spot, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Further reading

* beauty mark on Wikipedia.Wikipedia