Why “Nice” and “Nasty” Are Not Synonyms of One Another?
Definition of nice. The definition of nice, or being nice, has different meanings for different people. For some people, being nice means you treat people the way you would want to be treated. For other people it means to have respect for someone else, or to behave well in public.
A nice thing to do on your holidays is to stop by the seaside and take a nice relaxing holiday. France has some great places that you can visit and take a nice relaxing holiday. France is known as a country that has some harsh landscapes, but the scenery is very beautiful, and you will enjoy seeing the various historical sites including the Gothic architecture in Paris, the Eiffel Tower, and other amazing landmarks. The Eurostar runs regularly between France and England, so this is an easy train journey that you can make the whole trip.
Wikipedia defines a nice person as “A person who meets other people in order to build friendship and trust”. From this definition, it seems that being a nice person means meeting new people and building relationships. When you are a nice person, you would not judge somebody based on their appearance or what they may be wearing. A nice person is also known to be a caring, giving, and helpful person.
In the Oxford Dictionary, niceness is defined as “behaving nicely”, which sounds like an expression of niceness, and could possibly mean “a form of kindness”. But it is not only used as a term of kindness. According to the etymology dictionary, niceness comes from “niche” – a small group, or “group of things”. “Niche” could mean “one”, “one’s”, “little”, “smallish”, “ones” or “ones'”. If you look at the etymology of the word, you will find that the root words are the same as those of the word “nice”. This shows that nice is derived from a group of things rather than a person.
The etymology of the word suggests that niceness arises from being a pleasant person. A person who is nicest to others is said to have been born nice. And because the root words are “niche” and “person”, it is implied that niceness is only naturally occurring in certain types of personalities. If you are one of those personality types, then you can safely assume that you are not naturally nice and that being nice comes with some type of effort. It is only through some kind of conscious effort that nice people are nice to others.
Compare this etymology with the word “ignorant”. Ignorance of something does not translate to “unpredictable”, does it? In fact, ignorance of something can be the cause of its unpredictability. So while the word “ignorant” has a negative meaning when applied to a certain type of person – a foolish or ignorant person – the etymology of “nice” translates into “not ignorant”.