Meaning

noun shrewdness as demonstrated by being skilled in deception

noun crafty artfulness (especially in deception)

adjective attractive especially by means of smallness or prettiness or quaintness

originFrom Middle English cunning, kunnyng, partially from Old English *cunning (verbal noun), from Old English cunnan (“to know how to, be able to”); partially from Old English cunnung (“knowledge, trial, probation, experience, contact, carnal knowledge”), from cunnian (“to search into, try, test, seek for, explore, investigate, experience, have experience of, to make trial of, know”), equivalent to…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0