Lecture 29: Nasty Words and Nice Words

Nasty Words and Nice Words

Lecture 29

W

e all know that the word nasty means “offensive, vicious,”

and nice means “pleasing, agreeable.” It’s interesting to note,

however, that nice hasn’t always been so nice. Nice comes from

the Latin nescius, which meant “ignorant, unaware.” English borrowed

the word from Old French in the late 13th century, when it meant “foolish,

stupid, senseless.” It took on many other meanings over the years, including

“wanton, lascivious,” “coy,” and “precise.” It wasn’t until the 18th century

that nice began to be used in the modern sense of “agreeable.” Since then,

nice has proved so useful that if anything, it is now overused. In this lecture,

then, we’ll discover some other words to use instead of nasty or nice.

Virulent (adjective)

1. Extremely infectious, malignant, poisonous, or deadly.


2. Bitterly hostile, antagonistic, or spiteful; hateful.

z In October of 1347, the townspeople in the Sicilian port of Messina

went to the docks to greet 12 trading ships. Sadly, they were in for

a terrible surprise that would forever change the course of history.

What they found sounds like a scene from a modern-day horror

movie: Nearly all the sailors aboard the ships were dead, and

the few who were alive were in terrible pain, riddled with fever,

and vomiting.

z Perhaps most horrifying were the strange black boils oozing pus and

blood that covered the sailors and eventually gave rise to the name

of the disease from which they were suffering: the Black Death.

Some historians estimate that one-third of Europe’s population—20

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following the introduction of the disease in Sicily in 1347.