Sweete

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. A term signifying something pleasing or agreeable to the senses, often used to describe taste
2. Demonstrating kindness, tenderness, or affection in behavior or demeanor
3. Relating to a charming or delightful quality that elicits joy or happiness

Etymology: The word here is an obsolete spelling of "sweet", and its story begins with taste. Its ancestor is a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "sweet", which passed into Proto-Germanic as "swōtuz" and then into Old English as "swēte". The sense of kindness and tenderness grew out of the older sense of pleasant, agreeable sweetness, the same way we still call a person "sweet" when we mean they are gentle and pleasing. The family tree is wider than English. Latin "suāvis" meant "delicious, pleasant, sweet", and Ancient Greek "hēdús" carried a similar range of pleasant taste and gladness. English kept the word through its Germanic line, while "suave" came into English through French from the Latin, making it a doublet of "sweet". The two words split from one root and ended up with very different reputations: one as a plain word for taste and temperament, the other as a polished manner.

Synonyms: sweet, dear, lovely, pleasant, charming

Antonyms: bitter, sour, unpleasant, harsh, unfriendly