PRETTY

I. adjective (prettier; -est) Etymology: Middle English praty, prety, from Old English prættig tricky, from prætt trick; akin to Old Norse prettr trick Date: before 12th century 1. artful , clever , pat , apt , 2. pleasing by delicacy or grace, having conventionally accepted elements of beauty, appearing or sounding pleasant or nice but lacking strength, force, manliness, purpose, or intensity , 3. miserable , terrible , stout , moderately large ; considerable , easy to enjoy ; pleasant , see: beautiful prettily adverb ~ish adjective II. adverb Date: 1565 1. in some degree ; moderately , quite , mainly , in a ~ manner ; prettily , Usage: Some handbooks complain that ~ is overworked and recommend the selection of a more specific word or restrict ~ to informal or colloquial contexts. Pretty is used to tone down a statement and is in wide use across the whole spectrum of English. It is common in informal speech and writing but is neither rare nor wrong in serious discourse III. noun (plural pretties) Date: 1736 dainty clothes, a ~ person or thing, IV. transitive verb (prettied; ~ing) Date: 1909 to make ~