Why do they say 'kawaii' for 'poor thing'?


I've observed that when someone wants to say 'poor thing', they say something
like 'kawaii sonna' and I know that kawaii means cute. Can someone please
explain? Thanks.




You are mixing i-adjective [かわいい ( _kawaii_ , "cute,
lovely")](http://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8F%E3%81%84%E3%81%84) with
na-adjective [かわいそう ( _kawaisō_ , "poor,
pitiful")](http://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8F%E3%81%84%E3%81%9D%E3%81%86).
These are simply different, although they [share the same
etymology](http://gogen-allguide.com/ka/kawaii.html). かわいい（かはゆし） actually
meant 'pitiful' in old Japanese, but there was a shift in meaning many years
ago.

We say おいしそう ( _oishi-sō_ , "looks yummy"), たのしそう ( _tanoshi-sō_ , "looks
amusing"), etc., but we don't say かわいそう to mean "looks cute", because it's
confusing. Basically whenever you hear かわいそう ( _kawaisō_ ), that must mean
"poor".

For more information, please refer to [this
question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/3126/5010).




You are mixing i-adjective [かわいい ( _kawaii_ , "cute,
lovely")](http://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8F%E3%81%84%E3%81%84) with
na-adjective [かわいそう ( _kawaisō_ , "poor,
pitiful")](http://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8F%E3%81%84%E3%81%9D%E3%81%86).
These are simply different, although they [share the same
etymology](http://gogen-allguide.com/ka/kawaii.html). かわいい（かはゆし） actually
meant 'pitiful' in old Japanese, but there was a shift in meaning many years
ago.

We say おいしそう ( _oishi-sō_ , "looks yummy"), たのしそう ( _tanoshi-sō_ , "looks
amusing"), etc., but we don't say かわいそう to mean "looks cute", because it's
confusing. Basically whenever you hear かわいそう ( _kawaisō_ ), that must mean
"poor".

For more information, please refer to [this
question](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/3126/5010).

