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?