What is "kawaii"

a. cute, (non-gloss definition: especially in the context of Japanese culture).

is the quality of cuteness in the context of Japanese culture. It has become a prominent aspect of Japanese popular culture, entertainment, clothing, food, toys, personal appearance, behavior, and mannerisms.

The word kawaii originally derives from the phrase kao hayushi, which literally means "(one's) face (is) aglow," commonly used to refer to flushing or blushing of the face. The second morpheme is cognate with -bayu in mabayui (眩い or 目映い) "dazzling; glaring, blinding, too bright" (ma- is from 目 me "eye"). Over time, the meaning changed into the modern meaning of "cute", and the pronunciation changed to and then to the modern . It is most commonly written in hiragana, , but the ateji, , has also been appended. The kanji in the ateji literally translates to "able to be loved, can/may love, lovable."