N Is For Nice
by Kathy K McClellan
Title
N Is For Nice
Artist
Kathy K McClellan
Medium
Photograph - Photographs
Description
N Is For Nice by Kathy K. McClellan is an image created for Day 53 of the Journal 2022 Challenge, a 365 day Personal Art Challenge. This is a square image with a black border.
My journal entries for February 2022 include upper case (capital) letters of the Modern English Alphabet as well as a description that relays information on the word chosen for that day's letter. These letters are created from used wine corks.
When I looked for a definition of the word Nice, I felt like I had opened a can of worms.
First let's look at the modern definition and synonyms I found for the word Nice:
Agreeable, Kind, Pleasant, good natured, pleasing, inviting, genteel, polite, respectable and decent.
Those all sounds like positive definitions, don't they? That is what I was seeking.
However, I also found out that originally the word nice meant the exact opposite!
It started out in the Latin language and carried forward to English (by way of the French) as meaning ignorant, stupid or foolish.
In the late 1300s it was used to describe people, clothing or conduct as excessively luxurious or lascivious.
By the 1400s it described people who were finely dressed, fussy and precise.
By the late 1500s it became a "nicer" word to describe something as refined or polite.
The word did a 360 degree turnaround by the 20th Century and was then a positive word except for the mid 1980s when it was used in the term "nice guy". At that point all sorts of negative connotations were attached to the phrase.
Today I want to live by the modern, positive meaning of the word nice. I will strive to be agreeable, kind, pleasant, good natured, pleasing, inviting, genteel, polite, respectable and decent.
Well, I know for sure that I can at least do decent!
Uploaded
February 22nd, 2022
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