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On the recommendation of some regulars here, I managed to watch the movie The Madness of King George over the weekend, and found it excellent. Anyway, one funny scene in the movie is when King George, who despite being contentedly married is quite flirtatious, remarks on the looks of one of the Queen Consort's ladies-in-waiting to the head of his attending guards:

That's Lady Penbrook. Handsome woman, what? Daughter of the Duke of Marlborough...husband's an utter rascal.

Is the usage of "handsome" here archaic, or just rarely used by those in the know? If the former, when did it become so?

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Well, the use of handsome in that film may well be archaic or it may not. According to NOAD it currently means

handsome (of a woman) striking and imposing in good looks rather than conventionally pretty.

What I think it doesn't mean is hot in the sense we would use it today. The emphasis is on striking: she's not conventionally pretty, but neither is she ugly. She has striking features.

Here is someone I think would fit the bill rather, er, handsomely:

Sigourney Weaver

And here is someone who is more conventionally pretty:

Scarlett Johansson

But remember the worn adage about beauty being in the eye of the beholder? It's worn because it's true. There are certainly people who find Sigourney Weaver more attractive than Scarlett Johansson. And I can tell you who I would choose in a heartbeat if I were ever in a death match with an alien.

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Right, I have heard it being used in the manner you've talked about before, but I wasn't sure if there was a hidden subtext of irony there or not. A kind of delicate way to say "that woman looks like a man!" In this movie, Lady Penbroke really couldn't be described as such; even with the getup and everything, she looked "classically beautiful." First time I've fallen in love with a woman in a poofy wig. – Billare Mar 20 '11 at 19:20
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@Billare: I think irony is in the eye of the beholder as well. Certainly you could use handsome to mean "not pretty"; but I think if people were looking for ways to say "not pretty" they'd go first to "plain" or some other word devoid of positive connotations. Handsome is, on the face of it, a compliment. It may not feel like enough of a compliment for a lot of women, but it's still positive. – Robusto Mar 20 '11 at 19:28
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I was under the impression that "handsome" was reserved for older (~50+ yo) women. Perhaps used when beauty had faded but the women retained a certain je ne sais quoi. I thinking here of Glenn Close, Sigourney Weaver or Helen Mirren.

That being said, I have not heard the term used for a while.

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I agree here that 'handsome' would most likely not be used for a younger woman, no matter what her looks. – Mitch Mar 20 '11 at 22:22
Perhaps this is a stretch but: I think the term was the polite was of saying an elegant to beautiful woman a little past her prime (post-menapausal?). These days, it would come off as both sexist and ageist with implications that a non-breeding female is not sexually desirable. "50 is the new 40", as claims the headlines. – dave Mar 20 '11 at 23:29

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