nice
pronunciation
How to pronounce nice in British English:
UK [naɪs]
How to pronounce nice in American English:
US [naɪs]
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- Adjective:
- pleasant or pleasing or agreeable in nature or appearance
- socially or conventionally correct; refined or virtuous
- done with delicacy and skill
- excessively fastidious and easily disgusted
- noting distinctions with nicety
- exhibiting courtesy and politeness
Word Origin
- nice
- nice: [13] Nice is one of the more celebrated examples in English of a word changing its meaning out of all recognition over the centuries – in this case, from ‘stupid’ to ‘pleasant’. Its ultimate source was Latin nescius ‘ignorant’, a compound adjective formed from the negative particle ne- and the base of the verb scīre ‘know’ (source of English science).This passed into English via Old French nice with minimal change of meaning, but from then on a slow but sure semantic transformation took place, from ‘foolish’ via ‘shy’, ‘fastidious’, and ‘refined’ to on the one hand ‘minutely accurate or discriminating’ (as in a ‘nice distinction’) and on the other ‘pleasant, agreeable’ (first recorded in the second half of the 18th century).=> science
- nice (adj.)
- late 13c., "foolish, stupid, senseless," from Old French nice (12c.) "careless, clumsy; weak; poor, needy; simple, stupid, silly, foolish," from Latin nescius "ignorant, unaware," literally "not-knowing," from ne- "not" (see un-) + stem of scire "to know" (see science). "The sense development has been extraordinary, even for an adj." [Weekley] -- from "timid" (pre-1300); to "fussy, fastidious" (late 14c.); to "dainty, delicate" (c. 1400); to "precise, careful" (1500s, preserved in such terms as a nice distinction and nice and early); to "agreeable, delightful" (1769); to "kind, thoughtful" (1830). In many examples from the 16th and 17th centuries it is difficult to say in what particular sense the writer intended it to be taken. [OED] By 1926, it was pronounced "too great a favorite with the ladies, who have charmed out of it all its individuality and converted it into a mere diffuser of vague and mild agreeableness." [Fowler]"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." [Jane Austen, "Northanger Abbey," 1803]
Synonym
Example
- 1. Are you always that nice to him ?
- 2. Linda : he 's a very nice person . We 'll all miss him .
- 3. Even nice girls like hushed dirty talk in public .
- 4. Those things were nice , but not necessary .
- 5. So why did he ask 38 african heads of state and government to a jamboree in nice this week ?