Pretty modest about me getting first in linguistics (6)
I believe the answer is:
comely
'pretty' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'modest about me getting first in linguistics' is the wordplay.
'modest' becomes 'coy' (I've seen this before**).
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'getting' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'first in' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'linguistics' is 'l'.
'me'+'l'='mel'
'coy' going around 'mel' is 'COMELY'.
(Other definitions for comely that I've seen before include "'Very pleasing to the eye, a de Valera maiden perhaps (6)'" , "Pleasant looking" , "Archaic word for good-looking, say maidens" , "Quite good-looking" , "Old word for good-looking, say a lass" .)