The word красавица, which means “beautiful girl,” has the same root as «красивый», “beautiful or handsome”, «красота» “beauty” and «красный» “red.” Sometimes it can be translated as “beauty” as in the name of the famous fairy tales, «Спящая красавица» “Sleeping Beauty” and «Красавица и чудовище» “Beauty and the Beast.”

When I think of красавица, I imagine a pretty girl from the Russian countryside of Gogol’s time. She is wearing a colorful dress and a kokoshnik-tiara. Her hair is neatly braided in one long thick braid, and her big brown eyes are coyly cast down. She is the classic «русская красавица» “Russian beauty” that has been praised by so many literary masters.

The masculine form of this word is красавец “stud.” In day-to-day speech we sometimes use «красавец» or «красавчик» to express our approval or when we are pleasantly surprised with someone’s behavior:

«Красавица» can be used in a similar way as well:

I have a personal history with this particular word. When I was a little girl, I could not pronounce some letters. The letter “r” gave me the most trouble. My mom would make me read and do various exercises for at least thirty minutes a day before I could go play with my friends. Needless to say, I really wanted to break this vicious cycle and learn to say the “r” right so I could finally go run around the yard. One day I was home alone, playing with my dolls. For some reason I decided to practice my “r’s”, using the word красавица. It came out so perfectly clear; I could not believe I had nobody home to brag about it to! I remember saying it over and over again, worried that I would lose it… but I never have. When I think about it, it is very neat that it was this word, красавица "beauty", that made my speech more beautiful!