:INFO
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.


:PATH [links:https://www.etymonline.com/word/nice]
nescius → nice
From the Latin for ignorant, through foolish and then fussily precise, to the warm vague compliment we use today.

:TIMELINE
📜🪶💬
1300-01-01 | Enters English from Old French meaning foolish, weak or simple.
1400-01-01 | Shifts to mean fussy, finicky or overly precise about small things.
1500-01-01 | Comes to mean subtle or requiring care, as in a nice distinction.
1700-01-01 | Softens toward agreeable and refined in polite society.
1800-01-01 | Settles into the broad friendly meaning of pleasant and kind.

:QUOTE [quotetype:plain, subtitle:Jane Austen]
It is a very nice word indeed. It does for everything.
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:STATS