Re:Etsy was a twee culture punchline, now it’s a Wall Street...
by DanBC on Tuesday December 08, 2020 @03:18PM
(#25350771)
Here's what my dictionaries say. I agree that I'd tend to use it for "cutesy".
> twee, a. (and n. 3) colloq.
> 1. Originally: `sweet', dainty, chic. Now only in depreciatory use: affectedly dainty or quaint; over-nice, over-refined, precious, mawkish.
> 1905: Punch 8 Mar. 178/1, “`I call him perfectly twee!' persisted Phyllis.”
> 1917: M. T. Hainsselin Grand Fleet Days xv. 91 “Girl: Oh, here's another little gun; isn't it a darling! Isn't it just too twee for words!”
> 1947: E. Hyams William Medium viii. 164 “`Isn't he twee!' said Mary, and pinched his cheek.”
> 1956: G. Durrell Drunken Forest x. 193 “`What twee individuals?' `Those knowledgeable sentimentalists who are forever telling me that it's cruel to lock up the poor wild creatures in little wooden boxes.'”
> 1962: Observer 25 Mar. 25/3 “She has a small and, it must be said, pretty twee cottage.”
> 1967: E. Short Embroidery & Fabric Collage iv. 102 “The best of our designers who have abandoned the rather `twee' decorative type of embroidered picture.”
> 1973: G. Robyns Wimbledon xxix. 192 “There is..a twee Arcadian outdoor studio complete with white trellis and plastic flowers.”
> 1983: Listener 21 July 33/1 “Mike Nichols's thriller-fantasy about dolphins should be as nauseatingly twee as the worst Disney—but it isn't.”
Chambers 11th (because they give an origin)
> twee
> twee /twē/ ( informal)
> adjective
> 1. Small and sweet
> 2. Affectedly or sentimentally pretty or quaint
> ORIGIN: tweet for ‘sweet’, and later tiny and wee
> twee, a. (and n. 3) colloq.
> 1. Originally: `sweet', dainty, chic. Now only in depreciatory use: affectedly dainty or quaint; over-nice, over-refined, precious, mawkish.
> 1905: Punch 8 Mar. 178/1, “`I call him perfectly twee!' persisted Phyllis.”
> 1917: M. T. Hainsselin Grand Fleet Days xv. 91 “Girl: Oh, here's another little gun; isn't it a darling! Isn't it just too twee for words!”
> 1947: E. Hyams William Medium viii. 164 “`Isn't he twee!' said Mary, and pinched his cheek.”
> 1956: G. Durrell Drunken Forest x. 193 “`What twee individuals?' `Those knowledgeable sentimentalists who are forever telling me that it's cruel to lock up the poor wild creatures in little wooden boxes.'”
> 1962: Observer 25 Mar. 25/3 “She has a small and, it must be said, pretty twee cottage.”
> 1967: E. Short Embroidery & Fabric Collage iv. 102 “The best of our designers who have abandoned the rather `twee' decorative type of embroidered picture.”
> 1973: G. Robyns Wimbledon xxix. 192 “There is..a twee Arcadian outdoor studio complete with white trellis and plastic flowers.”
> 1983: Listener 21 July 33/1 “Mike Nichols's thriller-fantasy about dolphins should be as nauseatingly twee as the worst Disney—but it isn't.”
Chambers 11th (because they give an origin)
> twee
> twee /twē/ ( informal)
> adjective
> 1. Small and sweet
> 2. Affectedly or sentimentally pretty or quaint
> ORIGIN: tweet for ‘sweet’, and later tiny and wee