SMW: Etymology of 'Nice'
Why does everyone hate such a nice word?
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“Ugh, I don’t want to be ‘nice’. ‘Fascinating’ maybe, or ‘thoughtful’ or ‘caring’ or ‘cool’ or ‘passionate’. Not just ‘nice’.”
I remember once hearing someone describe his girlfriend like this: “She’s really nice”. I was disturbed. ‘Nice’ is ostensibly a positive word, but we all seem to hate it.
So the other day I started wondering, what is the etymology of this strange ambivalent word? Are there any negative connotations hidden it it’s history, or that all just very modern? So I looked it up on the Online Etymology Dictionary (a delightful site to browse!) and turns out it’s most definitely not just very modern:
Going right back to it’s Latin origins we have… a not very ‘nice’ meaning at all:
from Latin nescius "ignorant, unaware," literally "not-knowing," from ne- "not" (from PIE root *ne- "not") + stem of scire "to know"
which became in Old French by the 12th century
"careless, clumsy; weak; poor, needy; simple, stupid, silly, foolish,"
then
"timid, faint-hearted" (pre-1300)
and in late 13th century English
"foolish, ignorant, frivolous, senseless,"
then by late 14th century
"fussy, fastidious"
to, by around 1400
"dainty, delicate"
then in the 1500s
"precise, careful"
then by 1769
"agreeable, delightful"
and finally by 1830
"kind, thoughtful"
What a ride!
And it looks like people have been hating on ‘nice’ as a term of praise for at least a couple of hundred years. The entry in Online Etymology Dictionary quotes Jane Austen’s novel Northanger Abbey from 1803:
"I am sure," cried Catherine, "I did not mean to say anything wrong; but it is a nice book, and why should I not call it so?"
"Very true," said Henry, "and this is a very nice day, and we are taking a very nice walk; and you are two very nice young ladies. Oh! It is a very nice word indeed! It does for everything."