beauty

1225–75; Middle English be( a) ute < Old French beaute; replacing Middle English bealte < Old French beltet < Vulgar Latin *bellitāt- (stem of *bellitās), equivalent to Latin bell( us) fine + -itāt- -ity

English beauty comes from Middle English beaute, beaulte, from Anglo-French bealte, ultimately from an unrecorded Vulgar Latin noun bellitās (stem bellitāt-), a derivative of the Latin adjective bellus “pretty, handsome, charming, fine, pleasant, nice,” which is related to Latin bonus “good, virtuous.”
The progression of the various senses is: “(especially of a woman) physical attractiveness, grace, charm” (early 14th century); “(general) moral or intellectual excellence” (late 14th century); “(of a physical object) pleasing to the sight” and “a pleasing or beautiful quality” (both from the 15th century).
The colloquial, sometimes ironic sense, especially in the shortened noun beaut, “someone or something extraordinary, remarkable, or amazing,” was originally an Americanism dating to the first half of the 19th century.