cutely

cute  (kyt)

adj. cut·er, cut·est

1. Delightfully pretty or dainty.

2. Obviously contrived to charm; precious: "[He] mugs so ferociously he kills the humorit's an insufferably cute performance" David Ansen.

3. Shrewd; clever.

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[Short for acute.]

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cutely adv.

cuteness n.

Word History: Cute is a good example of how a shortened form of a word can take on a life of its own, developing a sense that dissociates it from the longer word from which it was derived. 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, and so it went on to develop its own sense of "pretty, fetching," first recorded with reference to "gals" in 1838.

Thesaurus

Adv.

1.

cutely - in an attractive manner; "how cunningly the olive-green dress with its underskirt of rose-brocade fitted her perfect figure" cunningly