ceigered:

ContextSwitch:adult about another adult

Or girly in one of two ways:

Your both letting your English ideas of "sweet" get in the way of what Dolĉa means in Esperanto.

::Agrabla por la sentumoj
Pleasant to the senses

If someone, boy or girl is "cute" to me depending on the context I would elect either;

ĉarma / ĉarmeta
dolĉa

But it depends what aspect of cute your talking about. Cute in English has many applications

AcidRain:What does "cute" mean in esperanto to describe someone's appearance?

Thank you.

I'm surprised nobody said "beleta" yet.

Evildela brings up a good point.

Wouldn't dolĉa be confusing to some people across the world? As in, a literally sweet person.

Evildela:

ceigered:

ContextSwitch:adult about another adult

Or girly in one of two ways:

Your both letting your English ideas of "sweet" get in the way of what Dolĉa means in Esperanto.

I think you're missing my point - there's various extensions of the concept of "sweet", which links back to the nature of what it means (which is virtually similar to what it seems to mean in Esperanto, by what you've written here) (but also I was having a little joke before too ).

But anyway, to my point, I think the gender differences and other minor differences in meaning depending on usage would still carry over. For instance, "ĉarma" seems either more masculine or maturely/"refined" feminine ("charmed, mr bond!"), because it's a word basically reserved for the concept that can't be easily misunderstood (aka sterile).

Sweet/Dolĉa on the other hand involves linking the concept of kindness/agreeability/likeableness to the more instinctial concept of taste, which comes off as more youthful sounding (since children are normally good at making connections with physical stimuli when they lack a word for something), which can then link to the concepts of cuteness, which links to "girliness/youthful femininity". Or it comes out sounding less refined and thus more familial, likening someone's personality or appearance to that of tasty food .

At the same time, both could be used patronisingly, to put someone at arm's length (if you REALLY like someone, there's always a bazillion nice adjectives with the option of -ega at the end, rather than saying "you're agreeable to the senses, but I'm not going to comment on whether you're good past that"), or to describe a nice person who has a "sweet/charming" appearance but you don't want to further describe them (either you don't know them any better or you do know them better and want to keep certain elements of them secret ).

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Anyway, I'm dragging this off-topic. For "cute", beleta sounds good, but I think "dolĉa" is also suitable too. It's hard to translate the concept of the English "cute" though since it's not particularly universal (refer to Japanese kawaii/moe differences, or Indonesian "lucu" (cute/funny))

I would use bela, if you mean simply "good-looking".

If I can speculate on why the meaning of 'cute' changed (my hundred year-old dictionary has it as 'ruza', as an example) I would say that it originally described the appearance of females who looked cheeky, a bit childish, full of 'inner spark', which made them appealing in a different way than just their external appearance. Nowadays it just means 'good looking' and a bit girly and or childish. Eg. "Hey, cute jeans."

'Ĉarmrigarda' (charming-looking) is a bit of a mouthful, I'd say just go with 'ĉarma'. 'Alloga' (attractive) is also a good choice.

I've been using beleta too. I've always thought of "cute" as a diminutive of pretty or attractive (the idea, if not the word) so beleta seemed appropriate. It would never occur to me, if someone called me "dolcxa" that they might mean cute.

Beleta has always been a problematic word for me. I just can't see it as an equivalent of 'pretty', or 'jolie' in French.

As a compliment it seems so grudging.

How was the weather on your holiday - 'boneta'. The speaker clearly has some reservations.

To describe a woman as 'beleta' is to acknowledge that she is not plain, but not to go much further.

For the distinction between pretty and beautiful, I would prefer 'bela' and 'belega'.

If "cute" is the exact equivalent of french "mignon", the question is what would you say to a native baby if you were in an esperanto family.

Kiel * * * gxi estas!

I think I would simply use "bela".

pikolas:Wouldn't dolĉa be confusing to some people across the world? As in, a literally sweet person.

I think that's rather unlikely, unless you've just licked the person.