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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for February 19, 1999
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pretty [adj. PRIT-ee]
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Here's a word with a group of very different meanings. Something that
is pretty can be something attractive or pleasing in a delicate,
graceful way: "What a pretty kitty cat."
Here are some additional meanings:
clever, adroit: "A pretty recovery, when Johnson caught the pass."
very large, considerable: "He inherited a pretty fortune."
terrible, very bad: "A pretty predicament."
fairly, moderately: "A pretty good harvest."
The earliest recorded use of the word is from Old English, as praettig
(crafty, cunning), derived from praett (trick, wile). In the 1400s,
it was prety (clever, artful; cleverly made). A man could also be
prety (brave, gallant, warlike).
Over the years the meaning changed until by the eighteenth century a
"pretty fellow" was an effeminate fop, and the word was also being
used to describe girls and women, with a meaning somewhat less strong
than "beautiful."
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