Dr. Johnson wasn't nice

ColoradoGuy · Oct 18, 2009

The Oct 8 issue of the New York Review of Books has in interesting essay here about a new passel of books about Samuel Johnson. It begins with a rumination on the word "nice":

"Britain is a very changed country; it has changed morally. . . . Yet one of the things that hasn't changed is the popularity of the nation's most popular word: "nice." When I was growing up, everything worth commenting on could probably be described either as "nice" or, controversially, "not nice." My mother would invite me downstairs for a "nice cup of tea" before I went off to school to be taught lessons by "that nice teacher of yours." At the same time, Prime Minister Edward Heath, who had "a nice smile," was "not being nice to the unions." Tony Blair seemed "very nice" at first, but he wasn't very nice to his friend Gordon Brown. "Nice try," my old headmaster would say if he read this very paragraph, "but your diction could be nicer."

Apparently Dr. Johnson was definitely not nice -- he went after everybody. And his definition of nice?

"It is often used to express a culpable delicacy."

It's a nice essay.

Deleted member 42 · Oct 18, 2009

nice=foolish; halfwitted.

I think I've mentioned that before.

What? Whaddaya mean we don't use Middle English as the standard vernacular any more?

maxmordon · Oct 18, 2009

Medievalist said:
What? Whaddaya mean we don't use Middle English as the standard vernacular any more?

Thrice abyde, Medievalist.

gothicangel · Dec 12, 2009

Who needs to be nice when you're the first person to standardise the lexicon of the English Language.

He may have had some out-dated opinions on vernacular English, but who cares?

blacbird · Dec 12, 2009

Samuel Johnson wasn't nice. He was a corpulent, smug, self-indulgent narcissistic snob, famous today less by the works of his own hand than by the biography from his star-struck and perhaps more literarily talented acolyte, Boswell.

caw

Cassiopeia · Dec 13, 2009

Medievalist said:
nice=foolish; halfwitted.

I think I've mentioned that before.

What? Whaddaya mean we don't use Middle English as the standard vernacular any more?

*sulk* I KNEW it. I've been trying to tell people that nice is an insult but do they listen? No. Why not? Because I'm too nice to be believable.

*goes off to have her snit*

Shakesbear · Dec 13, 2009

blacbird said:
Samuel Johnson wasn't nice. He was a corpulent, smug, self-indulgent narcissistic snob, famous today less by the works of his own hand than by the biography from his star-struck and perhaps more literarily talented acolyte, Boswell.

caw

Possibly ... but he shopped for Hodges food so that the servants would not be unkind to said cat. Any one who does that has my vote!

Johnson's Dictionary was not the first one ... see here:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/library/speccoll/littre/jd.html

gothicangel · Dec 13, 2009

Shakesbear said:
Possibly ... but he shopped for Hodges food so that the servants would not be unkind to said cat. Any one who does that has my vote!

Johnson's Dictionary was not the first one ... see here:
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/library/speccoll/littre/jd.html

I wonder what he fed the servants?

Shakesbear · Dec 13, 2009

gothicangel said:
I wonder what he fed the servants?

Rat Fricassee? Mouse Mousse? Main ingredients supplied by grateful cat!

Jamesaritchie · Dec 15, 2009

blacbird said:
Samuel Johnson wasn't nice. He was a corpulent, smug, self-indulgent narcissistic snob, famous today less by the works of his own hand than by the biography from his star-struck and perhaps more literarily talented acolyte, Boswell.

caw

I'm surprised you're old enough to have known him so well.

If nothing else, he did the world a huge service when he said, “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”

JoNightshade · Dec 15, 2009

gothicangel said:
I wonder what he fed the servants?

Actually if I recall correctly he was quite nice to his serving boy and left him a sum of money when he died.

Also, just because I have to say this whenever Dr. Johnson comes up:

I sat in his chair. Illegally. I have usurped the throne.

blacbird · Dec 15, 2009

Jamesaritchie said:
I'm surprised you're old enough to have known him so well.

He had bad breath, too.

caw

gothicangel · Dec 20, 2009

If nothing else said:
Interesting, considering authors weren't seen as a financial commodity until the 19th century.

I write for fun first, then maybe some money in the future second. Just call me Ms Blockhead!

SirOtter · Dec 20, 2009

blacbird said:
Samuel Johnson wasn't nice. He was a corpulent, smug, self-indulgent narcissistic snob, famous today less by the works of his own hand than by the biography from his star-struck and perhaps more literarily talented acolyte, Boswell.

caw

Of course, we only have Boswell's word for that. Maybe it was he that wasn't as nice as advertised.

Fallen · Dec 21, 2009

Samuel Johnson, nice bloke. Can't fault the geezer. So he's a bit nuts on the prescriptive front - every new kid learning the craft is: 'do I colloquialise, don't I colloquialise'. Poor pet, he'll learn eventually: the afterlife brings many revelations (or atleast a back issue of descriptivism: revealed). Nice.

Ruv Draba · Feb 5, 2010

nice

late 13c., "foolish, stupid, senseless," from O.Fr. nice "silly, foolish," from L. nescius "ignorant," lit. "not-knowing," from ne- "not" (see un-) + stem of scire "to know." "The sense development has been extraordinary, even for an adj." [Weekley] -- from "timid" (pre-1300); to "fussy, fastidious" (late 14c.); to "dainty, delicate" (c.1400); to "precise, careful" (1500s, preserved in such terms as a nice distinction and nice and early); to "agreeable, delightful" (1769); to "kind, thoughtful" (1830). In 16c.-17c. it is often difficult to determine exactly what is meant when a writer uses this word. By 1926, it was pronounced "too great a favorite with the ladies, who have charmed out of it all its individuality and converted it into a mere diffuser of vague and mild agreeableness." [Fowler]

"I am sure," cried Catherine, "I did not mean to say anything wrong; but it is a nice book, and why should I not call it so?"

"Very true," said Henry, "and this is a very nice day, and we are taking a very nice walk; and you are two very nice young ladies. Oh! It is a very nice word indeed! It does for everything."

[Jane Austen, "Northanger Abbey"]

Dr. Johnson wasn't nice

ColoradoGuy

I've seen worse.

Deleted member 42

maxmordon

Penúltimo

gothicangel

Toughen up.

blacbird

Cassiopeia

Otherwise Occupied

Shakesbear

knows a hawk from a handsaw

gothicangel

Toughen up.

Shakesbear

knows a hawk from a handsaw

Jamesaritchie

JoNightshade

has finally arrived

blacbird

gothicangel

Toughen up.

SirOtter

Il Cavaliere Marino

Fallen

Stood at the coalface

Ruv Draba