pretty

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“
Ixtli apparently thought in English pretty much as he spoke it, -- slowly, and with care.

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Definitions (27)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (11)

  1. adjective Pleasing or attractive in a graceful or delicate way. See Synonyms at beautiful.
  2. adjective Clever; adroit: a pretty maneuver.
  3. adjective Very bad; terrible: in a pretty predicament; a situation that has reached a pretty pass.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (11)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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This word has been looked up 218 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

lovely ·  handsome ·  neat ·  ugly ·  fair

Used in the same contextWord Family

pretty:   prettier ·  prettiest
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English prety, clever, fine, handsome, from Old English prættig, cunning, from prætt, trick.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also prettie, pretie; dial. also pratty; from Middle English prety, preti, praty, prati, clever, cunning, pretty, elegant, from Anglo-Saxon prættig, also, with loss of r, pætig, petig, crafty, wily, astute (glossed by L. callidus, astutus, sagax, gnarus, versipellis), = Icelandic prettugr, tricky, deceitful; associated with the noun, Middle English prat, from Anglo-Saxon præt, prætt, craft, art, wile (glossed by L. astu, ars), = Icelandic prettr, a trick (pretta, v., trick), = Norwegian pretta, a trick (pretta, v., trick); cf. Welsh praith, an act, deed. Cornish prat, an act, deed. cunning trick; prob. from Middle Latin practicus, skilled, cunning (glossed by peritus), from Greek πρακτικός, skilled, versed in affairs: see practic. The noun, Anglo-Saxon præt, may be due to the adjective, or, like the W. and Cornish words, it may be from Middle Latin practica, practice: see practice. For the sense of ‘cunning,’ or ‘sharp practice,’ cf. practice in like association. For the development of pretty from ‘cunning’ or ‘skilled’ to ‘cunning’ or ‘tricky’ and thence to ‘neat, fine, small, and beautiful,’ cf. the histories of cunning, fine, neat. There is an unconscious sympathy with neat trickery, or a secret admiration of it, that imparts to words denoting it a quality of commendation: the epithets cunning, shrewd, clever, sharp, smart, keen, cute, etc., though they may insinuate dishonesty, are likely to be received with a secret complacency by those to whom they are applied.
  2. from pretty, adjective, 7.
 

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/ˈprɪti/
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