MSGID: 1:153/716.0 05d60fa0   
   REPLY: 2:221/6.0 6052fe08   
   CHRS: IBMPC 2   
   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   know anyone named Beauty, nor have I seen historical references to women with   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+   
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