Nice: The True Story, IWSG, Origins, LoanWords

Posting the First Wednesday of every month, the Insecure Writer's Support Group, is the brainchild of Alex Cavanaugh. YOU can sign up HERE to participate.

Every month a question will be posed that may prompt you to share advice, insight, a personal experience or story. Remember, the question is optional. You can write about anything that relates to your writing journey.

Let's give a warm welcome to our co-hosts:   Jemima Pett, Debs Carey, Kim Lajevardi, Sarah Foster, Natalie Aguirre, and T. Powell Coltrin!

This month's question is: Do you have a word of the year? Is there one word that sums up what you need to work on or change in the coming year? For instance, in 2021 my word of the year was Finish. I was determined to finished my first draft by the end of the year. In 2022, my word of the year is Ease. I want to get my process, systems, finances, and routines where life flows with ease and less chaos. What is your word for 2023? Why?

I think this year's word for me is going to be WORD. Why? Because without words where would I be as a writer? In fact, where would any of us be, writers or not?

***

Here's to 2023 with a "nice" quote from the fabulous Austrian poet, 

Rainer Maria Rilke.

"An now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been."

Because his mother mourned the loss of a baby girl, 

she dressed and treated Rilke as a girl through his early life.

***

As I mentioned last month, I'm going in a new/old direction, sharing my love of words which includes their origins, histories and stories. So, without further ado, I introduce you to...

Origins: a recurring post in which I delve into the history of a word or phrase.

Today's word is: NICE

I've chosen "nice" because it's the word that set me on the journey of loving words.

I'm a bad speller, though not nearly as bad as I was when I was a kid. Spell check has helped me, A LOT, whereas my family was no help at all. Whenever I asked how to spell a word their reply was always, "Look it up in the dictionary!" They were merciless. 

Of course my reply was always, "How can I look it up and when I don't know how to spell it?" They remained unmoved. "Sound it out!" Do you know how hard that is? Do you know how long it was before I finely conceded to the fact the distroy is spelled destroy?

I digress... 

One day, when I was about 8 or so, I was trying to find the spelling of some word or other and got side tracked when I stumbled upon the word "nice".  I bet every single one of you believes you know the meaning of nice. HA! Nice has a long history of meaning something else completely.

Nice comes to us from Middle English, which was spoken between the 12th and 15th centuries. Back then it meant, "foolish, ignorant, frivolous, senseless." (oh dear!) Before Middle English it came from Old French, nice, spoken between the 9th and 13th centuries, and it meant, "careless clumsy, weak, poor, needy, simple, stupid, silly, foolish." (oh my!) The Old French word comes to us from the Latin nescius, meaning ignorant or not knowing. So, when you called someone nice, you were saying they were ignorant, unschooled, or silly. However, by Shakespeare's time nice was beginning to take on the meanings we give it today.

I suspect (but don't know for sure, it's just my "theory") that nice may have started out as a slang word meaning its opposite, rather like the way we use the word "bad" to mean good. "That's a bad ass car!" Who knows, maybe one day, bad will mean good and people will have forgotten that once bad actually meant "of poor quality," "not to be hoped for or desired," "unpleasant, unwelcomed." 

Thus, my little girl mind figured that if I wanted to insult someone very politely, I could say something like, "You're so nice," and the person would never know I was calling them a stupid fool.

 And that is the story of how I fell in love with words.

Quotes

"Treat others as you wish to be treated. Don't just be nice, but be kind to other people. That can be so rewarding." Mary Lambert

"It's nice to just embrace the natural beauty within you." Victoria Justice

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." Mark Twain

For those of you read this post, I bet you'll never read or hear the word "nice" and experience it in quite the same way again. You're welcome, have a nice day. 

***

LoanWord: a word adopted from a foreign language with little or no modification.

I thought each month I'd add a short list of foreign words that we English speakers commonly use as if they were our own. Here are a few from French: bric-a-brac, detour, prison, dance, prairie, soup and salad. And aren't we glad for soup and salad!

Being Thankful

Today I'm thankful for four more Dribble acceptances from Vine Leaves Press. 

And here is the link to my latest article in Destination Magazine! 

What are you thankful for? Have a word for the year? Do you have a favorite foreign word that we English speakers commonly use? 

(I may be a day or two late getting around to visiting people as I have to work today and tomorrow!)

Origins: It's Not Nice to Say Nice

Origins is a recurring post in which I delve into the history of a word or phrase.



Today's word is: NICE

I was a terrible, lousy, horrible speller all through school. Surprisingly with the advent of computers, I have become much better. You'd think spell check would have made me worse by making it easier. But the opposite is the case.

I now consider myself simply a lousy speller.

My family never gave in when I asked them how to spell a word. It was always, "Look it up in the dictionary." To which I always whined, "How can I look it up when I don't know how to spell it?" But they were merciless and stood their ground. It taught me how to look up all possible spellings until I got the right one. It also taught me to love words and their histories.

I was about eight, when I first discovered etymology. The word was NICE and yeah, I couldn't spell it. Those silent Es and essy sounding Cs gave me fits.

This is what I discovered. Nice comes to us from Middle English and meant foolish or wanton. The Middle English word came from Old French and meant simple-minded or stupid. And that comes from the Latin word "nescius" which means ignorant or not knowing. So, originally, nice was used to describe someone who was ignorant, unschooled or silly.

When I learned this I was totally shocked and totally hooked. I would never look at words the same way and I would never take them for granted. Now they were mysteries with histories.

It wasn't until Shakespeare's time that nice began to take on a new meaning. I can just hear those rowdy teens, those juvenile delinquents, those avant garde artist types turning it into slang, saying, "Thy doublet is NICE!" The same thing is happening today with the word BAD. "Bad jacket, dude." Maybe in a few hundred years bad will mean nice.

Anyway, if there's someone you really don't like and you want to let him know in a totally subtle way without being rude, you can tell him you think he's a really "nice" person. I betcha he'll never get the sarcasm.

Got a favorite word that's changed it's meaning?