In Japanese, an irresistibly cute baby might be described with an expression that translates as “Even if I put it in my eye, it wouldn’t hurt.” It’s a form of what psychologists call cute aggression, or the overwhelming urge to squeeze, crush, or...
Steve from Fort Worth grew up hearing his mother from the English Midlands use cute to mean sly or shrewd, not adorable. That older sense is the original one, from acute, with the initial a lost by aphesis. The meaning shifted from keen or...