acuto-, acut-, acuti-, acu-, -cusis +

1. A description of a febrile condition in which there are alternating periods of chills, fever, and sweating. Used chiefly in reference to the fevers associated with malaria.
2. A reference to a condition whereby a person has a chill or a fit of shivering.

Chilliness; the quality of being aguish.

Clever; sharp; shrewd; pretty or attractive.

Cute was originally a shortened form of acute in the sense of being "keenly perceptive or discerning, shrewd". It is considered likely that cute came to be used as a term of praise, or approval, for things that demonstrated "acuteness", and so it went on to develop its own sense of being "attractive" and "fetching".

The increased sharpness of sense perceptions.

1. Abnormally acute (sharp and loud) hearing, sometimes resulting in pain even when only moderately loud sounds are in the area of the subject; formerly, hyperacousia.
2. Increased sharpness of hearing or a condition that exists when sounds are perceived as unduly loud.

Decreased sharpness of sense perception.

Very acute, said of a disease.

1. An acute febrile state with chills.
2. A severe form of malarial paroxysm (in medicine, a violent attack which may be due to the sudden occurrence of symptoms or the acute exacerbation [the abrupt worsening] of preexisting symptoms).

Less than acute.

Extremely acute; marked by extreme severity of symptoms and rapid progress, as of the course of a disease.