Curiosità linguistiche

Hübsch war das alles

Hans Weber
Solothurn

Can you guess which adjective has expressed all these meanings, one after another, during its long history: ignorant; simple, stupid; shy; fastidious, difficult to manage; precise; appetizing; pleasant? – Well, it’s the common adjective nice.
Its origin is Latin nescius (from ne + sci-, cf nescio “don’t know”). A  questo proposito, lo spagnolo ha conservato il primo significato: necio “stupido”, e in italiano si trova l’espressione fare il nesci “fingere di ignorare”. Old French had nice “silly, simple”, which crossed the Channel and developed the various meanings listed above. […]
 
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