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Sunday 6 April 2014

Cute - more a verb than an adjective.

“Cute”, an article by a flustered man

Being a man and that too not a stupid one at that, I can claim to know many things but one thing that dodges all understanding is the usage of the word cute by my feminine friends. Oh yes, I have some, why would one think I would not and be put into this controversial question. I have been flabbergasted by the varied forms the meanings, or the recipient of this word can take.

Not to be left behind in any way, I went and picked up the dictionary to see what it said, I came across,
Cute (colloq.) sharp-witted; ingenious; (US) quaint.
Now obviously Oxford has got it wrong, and no surprise at that, because it was written by a group of men, none of whom seem to have understood how their female colleagues use this word in all forms of implications and intonations.
They could not have possibly have imagined the vast array of meanings this four letter word is beset with. I don’t really think that this is a word whose meanings are countable for each time you meet another woman, another meaning will surface, needing to be added to the list. So far I have come across numerous annotations to use it in, the best of them being used for babies (how on earth are they shrewd, ingenious or even quaint), dogs, plants, cats, houses (ok they can be quaint), laughter (now that explains a lot) and of course girls, their dresses (haven’t yet met a dress with a mind of it’s own), their food, the list as I said is endless. I could go on and on trying to make sense of the word cute, but I will be as it has been till now, no success at all. I might say that the understanding of the word cute is as complex as understanding the female mind itself, and if one can do either (that being a man who does so) must be nominated for a noble prize.

It is a noble quest indeed, one of the greatest mysteries of the language we speak. One I dare say I think will never be truly understood by men, who are in the spirits to find the true meaning of this word. I am not derogatory, just giving a friendly warning that the female companion whom you might end up questioning after reading this article may not take too kindly to such enquiries into her knowledge of the meaning of such commonplace words, putting your relation in jeopardy.

I have had the experience, often funny or of nature indescribable in text, of my female friends putting to use this absurd contraption of a word, to things I would have had described in any word rather than cute, but it simply seems to me that the easiest word they can utter when at a loss for it is “cute”. That may have offended some reading this, but the idea was not to do so, infact it is to make you aware of the mistake made so most commonly by us in everyday life. English has always been a funny language, and though recent times have modified language to suit our needs some misappropriations need correction.

I was reminded of this when I ran into my old English teacher, who upon hearing my language, which by the way due to female company had come to include the word cute for numerous wordily pursuits as an easy substitute, couldn’t control her smile, and neither could I, when she told me that cute is not every thing for everything is not cute. It is a mark of my respect and my dedication to this language and its teacher I write this article.

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