Cunning

I use the program Elevate (on my phone) for my morning exercises. I enjoy it enough to have purchased the subscription. And I haven't tried others, really, so I don't know how it compares.

But I am having an issue with a vocabulary exercise it offered today - a word is provided, and we're supposed to choose a picture with which to match it.

The word given was CUNNING, and the picture I was supposed to match it to was of a person with his fingers crossed behind his back.

To me, that is not CUNNING, that is deceitful. That is lying.

CUNNING does have a sly quality, yes. And may even have a  morally ambiguous feel (those morals are in the heart of the doer - who knows what moral statutes any person follows?) But to me CUNNING does not indicate outright deceit, it indicates a game of wits, and word play and loop holes. 

One does not have to be dishonest to be CUNNING.

The definition, as provided by....

Pause for a moment of crisis. I can't find my big dictionary. My physical one. The one I love to flip through just to touch all the words on the thin paper. How could I have given it away?! What was I thinking?!!  Breathing. Breathing.

...merriam-webster.com (full definition)

   1. dexterous or crafty in the use of special resources (as skill or knowledge) or in attaining an end

   2. displaying keen insight

   3. characterized by wiliness and trickery

   4. prettily appealing

   

...merriam-webster.com (simple definition)

 * getting what is wanted in a clever and often deceptive way

Huh. Well, I guess I just personally don't think there is anything clever about lying. Though I'll be honest, I don't know how the full definitions boil down to "deception". Oh. Perhaps "trickery". 

Hmm. A new word to think about. The difference, if there is one, between "deception" and "trickery".

What a CUNNING way to get me to expand my vocabulary horizons!