fetching

There are two meanings for this word with which I'm familiar.

• The present participle of the verb, fetch, which means to retrieve or "go get it, girl." (My dog is a girl. Calm down, feminists.)
• The more mysterious meaning is in the usage, attractive, as in a person to whom you are attracted. "She's a fetching one, eh?"

Fetching is far more than simply someone attractive - someone who can be called fetching has a certain aura about them: they wash over you. You can feel them in your spine as they pass you by and smile their jolly smile.

The word has kinship with cuteness - but less in the sense that the target person is cute, than the idea that they bring out the cuteness in you. You're forced to associate them with a word like fetching which is an infinitely cute way to describe someone - it almost makes you giddy and heady to say it.

You would only call someone fetching if there's a good chance of you swooning sometime in the near future.