That Was Not So Nice, Sir Knight!
Introduction
When someone implies that a person is nice, they normally imply that the addressed individual possesses pleasantness and is kind. Throughout history, this word has undergone a certain linguistic process that is called amelioration. This article wants to discuss two instances of amelioration in the English language: the words knight and nice.
Amelioration: what is this gibberish?
Before diving into the action, I want to make clear to the reader what a linguist and philologist understand under ‘amelioration’. The Oxford English Dictionary (my ever favourite companion) bears three distinctive meanings regarding the word.1 Two of them could be found here:
(I) The action or process of improving something or making something better; the fact or condition of being made better; improvement. Also: mitigation or alleviation of something negative or unpleasant.
(III) Linguistics. The development of a more favourable meaning or of more positive connotations for a word or expression.
Amelioration is the process of making a bad word more pleasant. This process gravitates towards philology/historical linguistics, as this is a phenomenon that develops throughout a language’s history. The counterpart of amelioration is pejoration (the worsening of a word’s semantics over time). A good example of amelioration is the modern English noun knight. When it was first used in the Old English language, cniht meant something like a stable boy or a boy servant. We could compare this word to modern Dutch knecht, which also means a servant. During the Middle Ages, a knecht functioned as the helper and learner of a noble knight. Modern English has the word page for it.
Over the course of history, the Old English cniht made its transition from a socially perceived low noun towards a prestigious one. The Old English language saw a cniht as someone who is a ‘boy or lad employed as an attendant or servant; hence, by extension, a male servant or attendant of any age’. This has now become obsolete and was roughly used from the Old English period (440 A.D.) until 1275 A.D..2 The meaning of knight then evolved into a ‘military servant or follower (of a king or some other specified superior); later, one devoted to the service of a lady as her attendant, or her champion in war or the tournament’.3
Modern knight and its idiom in shining armour
The modern knight made its appearance a bit later in time. Its semantic value gained serious weight during and after the Early Modern period. The Oxford English Dictionary, once more, mentioned that in ‘modern times (from the 16th cent.): One upon whom a certain rank, regarded as corresponding to that of the medieval knight, is conferred by the sovereign in recognition of personal merit, or as a reward for services rendered to the crown or country’. One may already perceive that this definition already aligns closely to what many modern people consider a knight is: a high-serving citizen.
We all may be aware of the phrase the knight in shining armour. An individual may correlate the phrase immediately to the world of fairytales and romance, and this is not something that is particularly weird to do. The first entry of the phrase dates from 1965 onwards, where it denotes a figurative manner of speech where ‘a person [is] regarded as a medieval knight in respect of his chivalrous spirit, especially towards women’. As one could see, the Old English cniht made a transition from a stable boy to a highly-ranked position in society. But where does this leave us with the word nice?
Do we not play nice?
This is always a fundamental question, when someone wants to initiate their research. With the word nice, we do not have to look particularly far to see a shift happening in meaning. It is one of the most famous words in the English language that underwent amelioration. The word finds its etymological root in Latin nescius, where it means ‘ignorant, unaware: not-knowing’. The word comprises ne (not) plus scire (to know).
Ultimately, the Old French language introduced the word in the English language. It is interesting to know that the French city Nice does not find its etymological root in the word. Nice has its roots in the Greek goddess, Nike (the same where my name hails from). When the Old French word arrived in the English language, nice meant ‘careless, clumsy; weak; poor, needy; simple, stupid, silly, foolish’.4 One may already see why ‘nice’ is not necessarily a positive word in its original form. The first English appearances of ‘nice’ fortify its negative semantics. The Middle English Compendium defines nīce (adjective) in four distinct entries:
I. (a) Of persons: foolish, frivolous; ignorant; (b) of actions, words, thoughts, faces, gestures, etc.: foolish, absurd, senseless, mistaken; wild, uncultivated; primitive.
II. (a) Sluggish, slothful; (b) faint-hearted, weak; cowardly, timid.
III. (a) Fastidious, fussy; scrupulous; (b) dainty, delicate; (c) strange, extraordinary, remarkable; (d) intricate, ingenious; of persons; clever, cunning.
IV. (a) Of persons, their dress, habits, etc.: extravagant; self-indulgent; (b) of persons, actions, demeanour, etc.: wanton, dissolute, dissipated, lascivious; also, inciting to lasciviousness; (c) wicked, sinful, depraved.5
But how did it then end up as something nice?
The word made quite a leap before becoming a positive association. Like the word knight, the Early Modern period determined its semantic change. How did this come to be? It was during this period that nice did not mean ‘foolish’ anymore, but the word rather transitioned its meaning towards ‘precise’ and ‘neat’. A sixteenth-century Englishman would have used nice to praise someone else’s eye for detail. Whether it was a artisan or an artist, they would hear that their skill was nice, when it met this qualification of showing detail in their respective works.
While prominent in the sixteenth century, Chaucer already used nice as a form to express ‘preciseness’ and ‘accuracy’: ‘Ful many a draughte of wyn had he ydrawe Fro Burdeux-ward, whil that the chapman sleep. Of nyce conscience took he no keep’ (ll. 396–8).6 It is within these lines clear that the semantic meaning of nyce is neither foolish nor clumsy. One could ponder whether it is denoting these meanings within this particular context, as the individual is under the influence of many draughts of wine. It is not too weird to envision Chaucer meaning preciseness and accuracy here, since that the individual is clearly drunk and lacking a precise/clear conscience.
The Oxford English Dictionary offers the insight that nice obtained its modern meaning of being ‘refined, cultured; associated with polite society’ from the year 1588 and onwards.7 From 1593 and beyond, the word gained the definition ‘Of the eye, ear, etc.: able to distinguish or discriminate to a high degree; sensitive, acute’. It received additional modern meanings of ‘Respectable, virtuous, decent’ from the year 1799 and onwards.
Verdict
Amelioration is the process where a negative word receives a positive semantic value over time. This article discussed the modern English words knight and nice. It became evident that amelioration was a linguistic phenomenon that stood root at the change of these modern English words.
- Oxford English Dictionary, ‘amelioration’. ↩︎
- Oxford English Dictionary, ‘knight’. ↩︎
- Oxford English Dictionary, ‘knight’. ↩︎
- https://www.etymonline.com/word/nice. ↩︎
- https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary/MED29471/track?counter=2&search_id=5089070. ↩︎
- Chaucer, Geoffrey, ‘General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales’, in The Riverside Chaucer, edited by Larry D. Benson, third edition, (Oxford University Press, 2008), pp. 29–30. ↩︎
- Oxford English Dictionary, ‘nice’. ↩︎