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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?
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Joined: Oct 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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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!
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Carpal Tunnel
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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)
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Carpal Tunnel
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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.
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Carpal Tunnel
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yes, precise (minutely accurate) is one of the current meaning of nice.
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stranger
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Carpal Tunnel
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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.
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