The word “nice” used to mean “stupid.” It derives from the Latin “nescio” (translated: “I don’t know”) and carried over into old French. At some point, it came to be associated with generosity, the assumption being that someone stupid is too innocent or naive to be selfish.
It then got carried over into middle English, and the connotation for stupidity got dropped, making it so that the word meant “kind,” as opposed to “stupidly kind”
This is awesome. It makes me wonder if we somehow picked up on that through genetic memory or phonetic archetype when we started changing it back to more of a pejorative (i.e. “nice” guys)
The word “nice” used to mean “stupid.” It derives from the Latin “nescio” (translated: “I don’t know”) and carried over into old French. At some point, it came to be associated with generosity, the assumption being that someone stupid is too innocent or naive to be selfish.
It then got carried over into middle English, and the connotation for stupidity got dropped, making it so that the word meant “kind,” as opposed to “stupidly kind”
Is that how the town in France got named?
Mapmaker: what’s that town over there?
Random farmer: (shrugs) I dunno
Mapmaker: (writes) “Nice”
This makes it even funnier with exchanges like:
“My phone’s at sixty nine percent, bro!”
“Nice! 😎”
This is awesome. It makes me wonder if we somehow picked up on that through genetic memory or phonetic archetype when we started changing it back to more of a pejorative (i.e. “nice” guys)
I love that lol
Nice!