Thomas Chandler Haliburton
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The Unlikely Evolution of Cute
Cute is a word whose meaning has gone has gone through a thorough historical transformation. There is no argument about cute’s derivation: it is a shortening of acute (and was sometimes actually spelled ‘cute). Acute has meant “clever, shrewd” since Shakespeare’s time and has had a set of other meanings as well, but it has never been defined as “attractive or pretty.” The contraction cute first appears in the early 18th century, but only a century later does it begin to take on its distinctive modern meaning; even after 1900 children were still being called cute as a compliment to their intelligence. (Compare the contemporaneous word cunning, with its strikingly similar ambiguity.) A few years into the century, we start to see the word—finally!—in descriptions of puppies and kittens. But the original sense hasn’t completely vanished; in such sentences as “Don’t get cute with me,” cute has nothing to do with adorable sweetness.
Synonyms
Examples of cute in a Sentence
Allison Futterman, Discover Magazine, 6 Nov. 2024
This floor-through townhouse co-op has a lot of cute details, like the working brick fireplace and the skylights in the kitchen and bathroom.
—Clio Chang, Curbed, 5 Nov. 2024
Marci Robin, Allure, 16 June 2022
This is high-octane cute.
—Ali Barthwell, Vulture, 25 Aug. 2021
See all Example Sentences for cute 
Dictionary Entries Near cute
Cite this Entry
“Cute.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cute. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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