10-08-2007, 11:54 AM
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10-14-2007, 10:16 AM
Bella Wrote:
grizeldatee Wrote:
Bella Wrote:
I said nice too much in my previous post, and I'm really not much of a fan of the word nice. It's boring. Sometimes it's hard to find better words that fit though.
You are correct -- the word "nice" doesn't sound like what it is; rather it is too short, hard, incisive sounding.
Exactly. It might be why I don't take people calling me nice as a compliment. It seems to mean they like you, but they think you are uninteresting and they won't go out of their way to talk to you (except to make general 'how was your weekend' small-talk) or include you in an activity; which actually does happen to me, so I think I am correct.
Of course I looked it up; I am an uber-nerd. 
Our instincts on this word are well-founded:
"nice - pleasing or agreeable
This word started life meaning something not very 'nice' at all, and has had more different meanings than meanings than most English words. It began as nescius, which in Latin means 'not knowing' or, more bluntly, 'ignorant'. The French turned nescius into nice, and used it to mean 'stupid or simpleminded', and it was this sense that was carried into English. However, by the 14th century nice had acquired another meaning, that of 'wanton or lascivious', so when Chaucer referred to a young woman as 'nice', he meant nearly the opposite of what we would mean today. In a remarkable reversal in the 15th century, nice swung in the other direction and was used to mean 'shy' or 'refined', and by the 16th century the word had been narrowed down to mean 'fastidious or tasteful'. We still use this sense in phrases such as 'a nice touch' or 'a nice distinction'. The modern use of nice to mean 'pleasant' dates only from the middle of the 18th century, and was remarkably controversial for many years, and even now some lexicographers label some uses of the word 'colloquial'." http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/curiousm.htm
10-15-2007, 06:24 AM
grizeldatee Wrote:
Bella Wrote:
grizeldatee Wrote:
Bella Wrote:
I said nice too much in my previous post, and I'm really not much of a fan of the word nice. It's boring. Sometimes it's hard to find better words that fit though.
You are correct -- the word "nice" doesn't sound like what it is; rather it is too short, hard, incisive sounding.
Exactly. It might be why I don't take people calling me nice as a compliment. It seems to mean they like you, but they think you are uninteresting and they won't go out of their way to talk to you (except to make general 'how was your weekend' small-talk) or include you in an activity; which actually does happen to me, so I think I am correct.
Of course I looked it up; I am an uber-nerd. Our instincts on this word are well-founded:
"nice - pleasing or agreeable
This word started life meaning something not very 'nice' at all, and has had more different meanings than meanings than most English words. It began as nescius, which in Latin means 'not knowing' or, more bluntly, 'ignorant'. The French turned nescius into nice, and used it to mean 'stupid or simpleminded', and it was this sense that was carried into English. However, by the 14th century nice had acquired another meaning, that of 'wanton or lascivious', so when Chaucer referred to a young woman as 'nice', he meant nearly the opposite of what we would mean today. In a remarkable reversal in the 15th century, nice swung in the other direction and was used to mean 'shy' or 'refined', and by the 16th century the word had been narrowed down to mean 'fastidious or tasteful'. We still use this sense in phrases such as 'a nice touch' or 'a nice distinction'. The modern use of nice to mean 'pleasant' dates only from the middle of the 18th century, and was remarkably controversial for many years, and even now some lexicographers label some uses of the word 'colloquial'." http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/curiousm.htm
I always find the history of words to be really interesting, especially when definitions have changed like with this one. Thanks for that, I'm going to have a look at that site you linked to as well. It's interesting how you can get a feel for some words just by how they sound.
Swear words are some of the most interesting ones, because they didn't start out as swear words at all and somebody at some point decided they were impolite, so they started to become words to use only in select company.
10-15-2007, 11:33 AM
10-15-2007, 04:28 PM