belle laide

noun

belle laide

noun

Etymology From French, belle (“beautiful woman”) + laide (“ugly”).

1

A woman who is attractive despite not being conventionally beautiful.

Perhaps her looks were not considered downright repulsive. But she was not even what in those years was called une belle laide, being neither feminine, nor soft, nor submissive.1979, Peter Drucker, The Man Who Invented Kissinger, John Wiley, published 1997, page 143:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.