Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to All:

AK>  "Beauty and the Beast", a movie name
AK>  -- why Beauty is without "the"?


          In English-language versions of this story... originally written in French... "Belle" may be interchangeable with "Beauty" as the name of a young woman.  Years ago it was not uncommon for females to have given names such as Faith, Hope, Charity, Constance, Felicity, Grace, Joy, and Prudence.  Many of them seem old-fashioned now... but some are still in use.  I don't personally know anyone named Beauty, nor have I seen historical references to women with this particular name.  I see a pattern, however, in that all of the above are characteristics a child may have &/or their parents may hope they will.


          In French & Italian... and quite possibly in other languages... the literal rendition of the title means "The Beauty and the Beast".  In English, however, we often omit articles when we are making reference to a theoretical concept.  WRT definition #1 in my dictionaries... a quality or combination of qualities which from the observer's viewpoint is pleasurable to the mind &/or the senses... we can & we do say things like:

              "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" (an aphorism I
              first heard as a child); "A thing of beauty is a joy
              forever" (John Keats); "She walks in beauty like the
              night" (Lord Byron); or... no doubt with the help of
              a good translator... "It is amazing how complete is
              the delusion that beauty is goodness" (Leo Tolstoy).

The moral of the tale could be, in effect, "Don't judge a book by its cover." But whether "Beauty" is seen there as the name of a person or "beauty" in the general sense or both, the article would still be omitted in English....  :-)


          Other titles in which the definite article has been omitted include WAR AND PEACE, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, and CANADIAN HISTORY FOR DUMMIES.  Yet we employ articles when we speak of these ideas in specific terms.  Which war is the author referring to in WAR AND PEACE?  The War of 1812... meaning the one which took place in Eurasia, not the one which took place in North America at roughly the same time.  We do the same with "beauty" when we add details best explained in definitions #2, #3, etc.  We might say e.g. "The beauty of it is that I can walk to work" or "[this woman] was quite a beauty years ago".  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+