cuteness

cuteness: cute (kyo͞ot)

adj. cut·er, cut·est 1) a) Attractive or pretty in a youthful or dainty way: »a cute puppy; a child wearing a cute outfit.
b) Sexually attractive; good-looking: »a cute boyfriend.
2) Obviously contrived to charm; precious: »"[He] mugs so ferociously he kills the humor—it's an insufferably cute performance"
(David Ansen). 3) Clever or witty, especially in an impertinent or evasive way, as in falsely suggesting that one is ignorant about the matter at hand.

╂ [Short for ACUTE(Cf. ↑acute).]

cute’ly adv. cute’ness n.

Word History: Cute was originally a shortened form of acute in the sense "keenly perceptive or discerning, shrewd." In this sense cute is first recorded in a dictionary published in 1731. Probably cute came to be used as a term of approbation for things demonstrating acuteness or ingenious design, and so it went on to develop its own sense of "pretty, fetching."

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Cuteness — Cute ness, n. Acuteness; cunning. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster] … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
Cuteness — Cute and Cutie redirect here. For other uses, see Cute (disambiguation) and Cutie (disambiguation) … Wikipedia
cuteness — noun The state of being cute. He thought his sister looked great in shorts; he said they gave her cuteness an extreme boost … Wiktionary
cuteness — cute ► ADJECTIVE 1) endearingly pretty. 2) N. Amer. informal sexually attractive. 3) informal, chiefly N. Amer. clever; shrewd. DERIVATIVES cutely adverb cuteness noun. ORIGIN shortening of ACUTE … English terms dictionary
Cuteness in Japanese culture — Kawaii redirects here. For various uses of Kawai, see Kawai (disambiguation). For the Hawaiian island, see Kauai. An example in construction work: Temporary guardrail in Narita. Since the 1970s, cuteness, in Japan … Wikipedia
cuteness — noun see cute I … New Collegiate Dictionary
cuteness — See cutely. * * * … Universalium
cuteness — n. appealingness, prettiness; craftiness, shrewdness … English contemporary dictionary
cuteness — cute·ness … English syllables
cuteness — See: cute … English dictionary

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