You searched for: “cute
cute (adjective), cuter, cutest
1. Clever; sharp; shrewd; The trick he played on his sister was cute and effective, but he could only do it once.
2. Pretty, attractive; descriptive of a pleasing and youthful appearance: The doll that Lynn got for Christmas was so cute with big blue eyes, a large head with golden locks of hair, and the doll looked so innocent and fragile!
3. Etymology: cute was originally a shortened form of acute in the sense of being "keenly perceptive or discerning, shrewd".

It is considered likely that cute came to be used as a term of praise, or approval, for things that demonstrated "acuteness", and so it went on to develop its own sense of being "attractive" and "fetching".

This entry is located in the following unit: acuto-, acut-, acuti-, acu-, -cusis; also, agu- (page 5)