definition: attendant, suitor of a lady; a man who attends excessively to dress, etiquette, etc.; a fop; a dandy
see also: the beau monde, the fashionable world; the beau idéal, the ideal beauty, beautifulness as an abstract ideal; the sense has shifted in English towards “perfect type or model”; the beaux arts, the fine arts
derives from the French beau (beautiful) and from Latin bellus (handsome, fine)
Quelle: Online Etymological Dictionary
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Beauism, in England, scarcely goes farther back than the days of Charles II. It may be said that Elizabeth had her beaux; but the true beau being an existence of which no man living can discover the use, and which is, in fact, wholly useless except to his tailor and the caricaturists, the chevaliers of the time of Queen Bess are not entitled to the honour of the name. Raleigh, no doubt, was a good dresser; but then he could write and fight, and was good for something. Leicester is recorded as a superb dresser; but then he dabbled in statesmanship, war, and love-making, and of course had not much time on his hands. The Sedleys, Rochesters, and their compeers, had too much actual occupation, good and bad, to be fairly ranked among those gossamery ornaments of mankind; they were idle enough in their hearts for the purpose, but their lives were not shadows, their sole object was not self. They were more nice about swords than snuff-boxes and, if they were spendthrifts, their profusion was not limited to a diamond ring or a Perigord pie. They loved, hated, read, wrote, frolicked and fought; they could frown as well as smile, and see the eccentricity of their own follies as well as enjoy them. But the true beau is a beau-ideal, an abstraction substantialized only by the scissors, a concentrated essence of frivolity, infinitely sensitive to his own indulgence, chill as the poles to the indulgence of all others; prodigal to his own appetites, never suffering a shilling to escape for the behoof of others; magnanimously mean, ridiculously wise, and contemptibly clever; selfishness is the secret, the spring, and the principle of, par excellence, the beau.
Source: BLACKWOOD’S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. No CCCXLIV. JUNE, 1844. VOL. LV.
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BEAU.
A common word to expres a medley character of coxcomb and fop; one who makes dress his principal attention, under an utter impossibility of ever succeeding as may be demonstrated by the following plain syllogism, of which the air of pedantry may be excused for the sake of its justice.
No fool can do any thing well.
None but a fool will make dress the business of his life.
A fool therefore can never dress well.
And this is so strictly true in fact, that there never was, not probably never will be a beau well drest.
This advantage can only be attained by the man of sense; far above either the weakness of making a point of his dress, or that of neglecting or even not consulting the proprieties of it, to his age, character, fortune, or station.
Quoted from: Ralph Griffiths, G. E. Griffiths: The Monthly Review, Or, Literary Journal. Vol. IX. London: 1754.