On Sat, 9 Oct 2004 18:08:51 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:

The message
from Stephen Howard contains these words:

And you really couldn't have picked a worse word to back up your
position....'nice' has evolved in meaning a great many times, and
still has many regional variations. Were you to adhere to the
principle you seem to keen to uphold then you just said 'his reply was
foolish'.

Nice going. How's your arse?

That's a comparatively modern usage - in fact, 'nice' in its firs
recorded form is far closer to the context in which it's used these
days.

How's yours?

It's as pert, pristine and gorgeously sexy as ever.... for two reasons
really..

Firstly...I've never seen any references to the word prior to the late
13th century, at which time its meaning was 'foolish'. If you have any
references to its use prior to that I'd be interested to see them.
Of course, it's worth bearing in mind that the word 'nice' derives
from the Latin 'nescius' ( ignorant ), which in turn has its roots in
'ne' ( not ) and 'scire' ( to know ) - so I'd be very surprised if the
word first started out closer in meaning to its modern context.

Secondly...that meanings change and evolve is something that doesn't
trouble me, rather it fascinates and delights me that language is so
vibrant. From that standpoint I'm far more likely to be tickled than
bitten.

Regards,



--
Stephen Howard - Woodwind repairs & period restorations
http://www.shwoodwind.co.uk
Emails to: showard{who is at}shwoodwind{dot}co{dot}uk