Where does this phrase "Keep for nice" come from? I know it means to save something for special occasions, like "company dishes" or the good china.
While we're at it, how about "make nice"?
Any other "nice" phrases out there?
ooh Connie! one of my favorite words!
Nice bit of business that is, what's happened to the meaning of nice!
Nice used to mean nasty! it comes from the latin nescius--ignorant.. and over time came to mean-->foolish-->shy-->factidious-->refined--> and from there to minutely accurate (nice distinction) and pleasant or agreeable!
Did you watch Frontier house? in the past, when keeping clean, and just getting what you needed to get through the day took so much effort, life was a dull and deary grind.. something special.. some keep for nice (refine pleasure!) as a treat, not to be squandered!
Nice piece of work this is!
actually, i find the word insipid, and try to avoid it. not with total success. Make nice is a perfect example.. to me it means fake pleasantness for the sake of decorum.. Yes, you sister is being a absolute horror, and the bridesmaid dresses make you look like a parody of pretty, but its her wedding, so make nice!
re: it decimates the arguments -- does that mean is it 10% acurate? or that it is a fully effective argument? or the argument is with out merit (it has no lead or head to it?) can you decimate an arguement? -- or just the people you argue with?
(excuse me, while i run and hid from Max's wrath)
Didn't it also mean exact or precise at one point.
I remember reading a book called "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch" that used it to mean that.
yes, precise (minutely accurate) is one of the current meaning of nice.
I don't have Florence King here with me anymore, but she had an essay somewhere on the word "nice" and what it meant in the South. Hilarious. Read it a long time ago, but sure would like to come across that one again.
In one part of the essay, she wrote about what "nice people" were in the South, and how important it is to have one "nice" piece of furniture and what constituted a nice piece of furniture. I think it was her repetition of the word nice that built up the humor in the essay.
Shakespeare actually used nice in several different senses:
These are complements, these are humours, these betraie nice wenches that would be betraied without these. Love's Labor's Lost [wanton]
And he that stands vpon a slipp'ry place, Makes nice of no vilde hold to stay him vp. John III [to display reserve]
That policie may either last so long, Or feede vpon such nice and waterish diet. Othello [thin]
The Letter was not nice, but full of charge, Of deare import, and the neglecting it May do much danger. Romeo & Juliet [trivial]
To set so rich a mayne On the nice hazard of one doubtfull houre, It were not good. Henry IV [critical]
Ile proue it on his body if he dare, Despight his nice fence, and his actiue practise. Much Ado.. [carefully accurate]
We will enjoy That *nice-preserued honesty of yours. Titus..
stupid/foolish > wanton/lascivious > extravagant > elegant > strange > slothful > unmanly > luxurious > modest > slight > precise > thin > shy > discriminating > dainty > pleasant and agreeable
"You scold me so much in a nice long letter.. which I have received from you." - Jane Austen
(what do you suppose she meant?)
a nice long letter; nice long
Nice long seems to be have acquired a double connotation. The phrase or idiom can be said with a glint of cynicism as in, "Yeah, that'll be there for a nice long time." Or, more literally, in a more congenial sense, "Think I'll take a nice long vacation." However, its use in the Austen quote does seem to hang in ambiguity (perhaps intentionally?).
I have also heard the phrase "make nice" used to mean to mollify, to assuage, to grovel, to appease or the like. Anyone wise to the derivation?
"make nice" derivation> Shakespeare, op. cit.
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re: it decimates the arguments -- does that mean is it 10% acurate?
It means that 10% of the argument is taken out and shot and the other 90% is sent off to complain about other linguistic matters.
Ah, the shades of meaning of this word. Reminds me of something I heard in some sitcom years ago, in one of my rare moments of pointing my eyes toward the big glowing box. Two women are talking, and the first one says "So, how did your date with Chris go? How is he?" The second woman replies "He's a very nice person," to which her friend says "What a terrible thing to say!"