Welsh: hardd, prydferth, pert etc.

[Gavril]

There are several Welsh words translated as "beautiful": hardd, prydferth and pert are the ones that occur to me now. Is there a semantic difference between these three? For example, does one normally refer to a "deeper" level of beauty than the others?

(I don't remember seeing hardd used very often, outside of my textbook, so perhaps it's a literary/archaic word in modern-day Welsh.)

Thanks

 

[Alxmrphi]

I think, though very well could be wrong, that pert is more superfluously beautiful, like 'cute' or 'nice' (also 'pretty', which is as its defined in my Welsh dictionary).
I'm not aware of any difference between hardd and prydferth, which are often used to describe things such as big landscapes.

I'm not sure how they are used towards people though, only inanimate things.
Maybe there's a difference there, you'd need a true Cymro to confirm that.

 

[cirrus]

Does not pert also imply neat? Can I suggest a brilliant resource: riadur.co.uk. It is really useful because it brings up comparisons between three different dictionaries at once.

 

[Alxmrphi]

Wow that's a really great resource!!

Diolch yn fawr

 

[cirrus]

OK here's another resource which I have found really useful. Have a look at saysomethinginwelsh.com. In some ways it's similar to WR except that it's focus is obviously yr hen iaith.