I’ve always thought the word nice to be complimentary, a good word. If something or someone was described as being nice it was taken to be a good thing. I call myself a nice person all the time, as do others. I lumped it together with words like - good, kind, considerate, pleasing, enjoy or sweet. You get what I mean, hopefully.
But today a friend of mine pointed out the actual meaning of the word, and it really surprised me to hear the definition. Apparently its not such a complimentary adjective after all.
Webster’s Dictionary (11th ed.) defines nice as:
- foolish, wanton, silly, simple
- fastidious, discriminating
- pleasing, agreeable
- choosy, finicky, particular, persnickety
So when someone calls you nice it might actually be a thinly veiled insult. Depending on how you consider words like silly and simple, of course. Its not necessarily bad to be silly and simple. I suppose its more to do with the tone really. But its something most of us haven’t considered before.
“You’re so nice.”
“What the hell do you mean by that?!”
Geez, when did nice become an insult??
I don’t care, I still think I’m a nice person.
I’ll be taking it as a compliment.
But I’m not sure what to think of the people who live in the town of Nice, France, now!
Did they name the town themselves? Or was it named by perhaps a smug bunch up in Paris? Hhhhmmmm.... makes you wonder.
No comments:
Post a Comment