The Long Road of Nice

If you called someone nice in 1300 you were calling them stupid. The word has travelled further than almost any in English, from foolish to precise to delightful, never sitting still for long. Here is the whole strange journey of one small word.

nescius → nice

From the Latin for ignorant, through foolish and then fussily precise, to the warm vague compliment we use today.

etymonline.com

📜🪶💬01.01.1300 – 01.01.1800

01.01.1300Enters English from Old French meaning foolish, weak or simple.

01.01.1300

01.01.1400Shifts to mean fussy, finicky or overly precise about small things.

01.01.1400

01.01.1500Comes to mean subtle or requiring care, as in a nice distinction.

01.01.1500

01.01.1700Softens toward agreeable and refined in polite society.

01.01.1700

01.01.1800Settles into the broad friendly meaning of pleasant and kind.

01.01.1800

"
It is a very nice word indeed. It does for everything.
"
Jane Austen · Northanger Abbey

First attested

around 1300

Root

Latin nescius, not knowing