nice

Etymology

From Middle English nice (“foolish, stupid”),^[1][2] borrowed from Old French nice (“simple, foolish, silly”),^[3][2] from Latin nescius (“ignorant, not knowing”),^[1][4] from ne- “not” + scīre “to know”.^[2][5] Compare science.^[5]

Recorded from the late 13th century,^[5][2] the word has passed through a remarkable series of senses: “foolish”, then “timid”, “fussy, fastidious” (late 14th century), “dainty, delicate” (c. 1400), “precise, careful” (16th century), “agreeable, delightful” (1769) and “kind, thoughtful” (1830).^[5] The OED notes that the precise development of these senses is not altogether clear.^[4]

References

1. [1] [2] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston: Houghton Mifflin
2. [1] [2] [3] [4] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. [1] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
4. [1] [2] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. [1] [2] [3] [4] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com