What is the word for cute/juvenile features? [closed]
I’m struggling to find the word on google or reverse lookup that has to do with cute features, such as small arms, big eyes, basically the juvenile look nearly every animal has that elicits a care response in adults.
It might sound something like neurism or eural, it’s on the tip of my tongue.
Edit for mods that closed this for off topic: needed it for a poem where the sound of the word actually is important.
Example sentence:
The claimed president
Of the economy
Delusioned a bit
Hands spell ______
Solution 1:
You might be looking for neoteny
The retention of juvenile characteristics in the adults of a species
Solution 2:
In amine / manga and general Japanese culture this is referred to as kawaii:
Kawaii (Japanese: かわいい or 可愛い, IPA: [kaɰaiꜜi]; 'lovely', 'loveable', 'cute', or 'adorable')1 is the culture of cuteness in Japan.[2][3][4] It can refer to items, humans and non-humans that are charming, vulnerable, shy, and childlike.[2] Examples include cute handwriting, certain genres of manga, and characters including Hello Kitty and Pikachu.[5][6]
The cuteness culture, or kawaii aesthetic, has become a prominent aspect of Japanese popular culture, entertainment, clothing, food, toys, personal appearance, and mannerisms.[7]
Solution 3:
In German there's the term Kindchenschema and checking several translation websites they suggest one of the following terms in English (in no particular order):
- schema/scheme of childlike characteristics / childlike schema/scheme (dict.cc, leo.org, linguee.com)
- cuteness [small child pattern] (dict.cc, also backed by wikipedia)
- baby schema (pons.de, also kinda backed by wikipedia)
- baby face (linguee.com)
Sources:
- wikipedia article on cuteness
- dict.cc
- leo.org
- linguee.com
- pons.de