Following up on our conversation about euphemistic ways to talk about one’s age, Gene from Greenwood, Indiana, reports that his mother-in-law prefers the phrase I’m at that cute age. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “At That Cute...
A Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, listener notes that the word cunning is sometimes used to describe a cute baby. In the 14th century, this adjective had to do with the idea of knowing, and eventually also acquired the meaning of quaint or...
“May a mouse eat you,” or in Persian, moosh bokharadet, is a term of endearment suggesting the recipient is small and cute. Another picturesque hypocorism: French mon petit chou, “sweetheart,” but literally, “my little cabbage.” This is part of a...
Cute, which comes from acute, once meant “shrewd and perceptive”–“sharp,” in other words–rather than “adorable.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Origin of Cute” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, Martha. My name is Steve from...
Paula from Palm City, Florida, wants to know: What’s so cute about buttons, anyway? Like the expressions cute as a bug and cute as a bug’s ear, this one seems to derive from cute meaning delicate and small. She raises another interesting question:...
In the film industry, the expression meet cute refers to “an overly precious first encounter between the romantic leads.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Meet Cute” Hi, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Kelly Radke from Green...