NICE is a funny word etymologically and a true testament to the ever-changing nature of language. This particular word made its way into the English language c. 1300, coming from the Latin nescius meaning “ignorant” or literally ne – “not”, and the root word scire-“to know”.
It only gets crazier from here. It went on to mean “fussy” and was also used to describe something as being “dainty” or “delicate”. Around c.1500, it came to be understood in relation to being “careful”, then in 1769 “agreeable”. Finally, in 1830 NICE came to its final fruition in being understood as being “kind” or “pleasant”- basically how we understand the word today.
We are not completely sure how NICE underwent such a tremendous transformation of perception, however, it seemed to be used as a means of gentle criticism against the upper classes. Thus, it is all too likely that the elite revamped this word’s meaning into something positive to ultimately benefit themselves and protect their image.
I would argue that NICE is objectively the least interesting descriptor that can be assigned to any object or person – which is probably why children use it all the time to describe everything. It is a word that really just means moderately pleasant, and I would argue that adults only really use it if they don’t know enough about someone or something. When there is an absence of knowledge in a person or a thing to the extent that an interesting or telling descriptor cannot be conjured, then we default to NICE.
A moderately pleasant thing that I know nothing about.
There is a quiet irony here; in all that we do “not know” and how we use the word NICE.
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