I often make the point the English is a river not a lake, it is constantly flowing and changing.
How much our language has changed becomes clear when we look at a word and discover that it once meant something totally different from what it means now.
And this word ‘nice’ is one of those.
These days ‘nice’ means ‘pleasant, attractive, or enjoyable’ (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English).
When we apply it to people we probably mean that they are friendly, kind or polite.
But history tells a different story: ‘nice’ originally meant ‘foolish, silly, simple; ignorant.’
Eh?
That seems so strange!
How could the word ever have meant that?
This word ‘nice’ first appeared into English around 1300 as an Anglo-Norman word, which meant it came from a French source word.
Back in those days ‘nice’ could also mean an action that displayed ‘foolishness or silliness.’
All these meanings seem to peter out around the 1600s, and are labelled as ‘obsolete’ today.
Because the word didn’t stand still—it kept developing different meanings over time.
For example, people started applying it to the way folk dressed—particularly if they dressed in a showy or extravagant fashion (perhaps they though dressing like that was foolish?)
Once ‘nice’ was being applied to clothes it morphed again and came to mean ‘finely dressed’ or ‘elegant.’
(You can see it is starting to move in our modern direction.)
And once it meant elegant dress people started using ‘nice’ to mean elegant manners or conduct.
But not always in a good way.
There was a time when ‘nice’ meant that your conduct was far too fussy and punctilious.
But then this slightly unfavourable meaning switched from being bad to good—and ‘niceness’ was something associated with polite society.
Before you know it ‘nice’ is being used to mean ‘tact, care, or discrimination.’
From there it was only a short step to ‘nice’ coming to mean ‘agreeable, pleasant’ and its long journey through the English language was almost up to where we stand today.
So, this particularly linguistic river has been a slow moving, meandering one, bumping into first one headland and then another.
Which is why trying to map our language can sometimes feel like trying to map the waves at sea!
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MEDIA...
Tonight I will join Peta Credlin on Sky News for 'Words Matter.'
The latest issue of The Spectator Australia (out Friday) includes my language column looking at the strange word 'mandamus' and at 'reconciliaton.'
In the current edition of Quadrant I have an article on 'Orwell Updated' about politics and the English language.
I have signed the anti-Semitism pledge, and I encourage you to do the same. You can sign the letter here: www.saynotoantisemitism.org
Australian Geographic is out now (with cute, snow-bound penguins on the cover). My Ozwords column looks at 'cane toad politics' while my Placenames column explains the meaning of 'Wagga Wagga.'
If you'd like to see my A-Z list of Aussie slang you'll find it here in the Australian Geographic website -- A-Z list of Aussie slang. Here’s the link: The A-Z of Aussie slang - Australian Geographic
BY THE WAY...
The liveliest part of this website is usually the Q and A page -- be sure to check it out from time to time.
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