Nice

It may be just me, but I have felt for a while the word “nice” did not really cut it.  Ok it was “nice,” but to me it was an anemic word.  A beige word.  A fill in word.  I do like the idea of “giving pleasure or joy” which is the meaning of “nice.”  But saying something like I hope you had a pleasurable time” is to me more descriptive than saying “I hope you had a nice time.”
The word nice turns out to be not so nice at all.  Well it is now.  That was not always the case though.  It is from the Latin word nescius.  In the 1300rds when we first got it from the French it meant, “unaware, ignorant.”
Very different now of course.  Using todays understanding if I said to a group they were nice people back in the 1300rds I would be saying they were “ignorant, unaware people.”  Somehow, I do not think that would go over very well.
As I was being taken away I would probably protest saying I thought you were nice people.  Basically, I would be saying they are stupid people.  That would only make things worse for me I reckon.
Each century the meaning of the word was improving.  In the 1400rds if I said that to a group of people I would be saying they were fussy.  I cannot imagine that really endearing me to folks.  Ok I may not be calling them stupid but there is a good chance fussy would not accurately describe them either.  Well maybe a few of them it would but fussy is not the first wors that comes to mind for me about many people.
Late 1500rd it meant refined.  The group I called that would likely think, “he is trying to butter us up.  No one has ever called me that before.”
Now it means what it does.  For sure it has a dodgy past.  But even now for me it is a word of last resort.  It seems so often a better word could be used.  But in this case I think I will let the word itself have the last word.  I am thinking maybe that would be nice.