"Cute as a Button"

Posted by ESC on February 17, 2000

In Reply to: "Happy as Larry" and "Cute as a Button" posted by Matt on February 16, 2000

: Anybody have any idea what the origins of either of these is??

: Thanks,
: Matt

CUTE AS A BUTTON - "cute, charming, attractive, almost always with the connotation of being small, 1868 (from the original 1731 English meaning of 'acute' or clever). Cute as a bug's ear, 1930; cute as a bug in a rug, 1942; cute as a button, 1946. Cute and keen were two of the most overused slang words of the late 1920s and 1930s." From Listening to America: An Illustrated History of Words and Phrases from Our Lively and Splendid Past by Stuart Berg Flexner (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1992.)