nice

Etymology 1

From Middle English nyce, nice, nys, from Old French nice, niche, nisce (“simple, foolish, ignorant”), from Latin nescius (“ignorant, not knowing”); compare nesciō (“to know not, be ignorant of”), from ne (“not”) + sciō (“to know”).

adj

1. (chiefly informal) Pleasant, satisfactory.
   When the party was nice, the party was jumpin' (Hey, Yippie, Yi, Yo) 1998, “Who Let the Dogs Out?”, performed by Baha Men
   What's difficult is when you think someone is saying something nice about you, but you're not quite sure. 2008-04-19, Rachel Cooke, quoting David Lodge, “Nice work”, in The Observer, →ISSN
2. (chiefly informal) Of a person: friendly, attractive.
3. Respectable; virtuous.
   What is a nice person like you doing in a place like this?
4. (with and, chiefly informal) Shows that the given adjective is desirable, or acts as a mild intensifier; pleasantly, quite.
   The soup is nice and hot.
   We toted in the wood and got the fire going nice and comfortable. Lord James still set in one of the chairs and Applegate had cabbaged the other and was hugging the stove. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
5. (chiefly informal) Showing refinement or delicacy, proper, seemly
   a nice way of putting it
6. (obsolete) Silly, ignorant; foolish.
7. (now rare) Particular in one's conduct; scrupulous, painstaking; choosy.
   Mr Blifil, I am confident, understands himself better than to think of seeing my niece any more this morning, after what hath happened. Women are of a nice contexture; and our spirits, when disordered, are not to be recomposed in a moment. 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
   But if I dispense with the dreams of neurotics, my main material, I cannot be too nice [translating wählerisch] in my dealings with the remainder. 1999, Sigmund Freud, translated by Joyce Crick, The Interpretation of Dreams, Oxford, published 2008, page 83
8. (dated) Having particular tastes; fussy, fastidious.
   Choice, nice in eating; fastidiosus in edendo. 1898, Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller, “cís”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 156
9. (obsolete) Particular as regards rules or qualities; strict.
   Good company requires only birth, education and manners, and with regard to education is not very nice. Birth and good manners are essential. 1818, Jane Austen, chapter 16, in Persuasion
10. Showing or requiring great precision or sensitive discernment; subtle.
    "It's her own funeral, you know," said Sir Lulworth; "it's a nice point in etiquette how far one ought to show respect to one's own mortal remains." 1914, Saki, Laura
    It would be a nice theological point to try and establish whether Ophis is Moslem or gnostic. 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 131
    Why it should have attained such longevity is a nice question. 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 242
11. (obsolete) Easily injured; delicate; dainty.
12. (obsolete) Doubtful, as to the outcome; risky.
    It has been a damned nice thing - the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life. 28 Jul 1822, T. Creevey, Reminiscences

adv

1. (colloquial) Nicely.
   Children, play nice.
   He dresses real nice.
   This riesling's going down nice. 2002, Gina Riley, Jane Turner, That's Unusual: Scripts from Kath and Kim, Series 2, page 245

intj

1. Used to signify a job well done.
   Nice! I couldn't have done better.
2. Used to signify approval.
   Is that your new car? Nice!

noun

1. niceness.
   She had refused as kindly as she know how, using up as much nice as she had energy for because she was glad of his company when three o'clock rolled around and she started thinking about September. 2000, Dana Stabenow, Midnight Come Again, page 111
   We could debate forever about whether we have enough of one or too much of another. But I know one thing for sure: We never have too much nice. 2013, Todd Whitaker, What Great Teachers Do Differently: 17 Things That Matter Most
   It is the absence of rules and too much nice that are more likely to produce terror. 2014, Jean Illsley Clarke, Connie Dawson, David Bredehoft, How Much Is Too Much?

Etymology 2

Name of a Unix program used to invoke a script or program with a specified priority, with the implication that running at a lower priority is "nice" (kind, etc.) because it leaves more resources for others.

verb

1. (transitive, computing, Unix) To run a process with a specified (usually lower) priority.