Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Dictionary Corner #15

It’s interesting to see where words originate from and what they mean. I was surprised to see that the origins/early senses of the word ‘nice’ aren’t really that nice at all!

Nice – adjective

Pleasant, agreeable or attractive.
Good natured; kind.
Fine or subtle – a nice distinction.

- DERIVATIVES nicely adverb niceness noun.
- ORIGIN early senses included ‘stupid’ and ‘coy’: from Latin nescius ‘ignorant’

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