different between nice vs rare

English

Alternative forms

• nyc (non-standard)
• noice (slang)

Pronunciation

• enPR: n?s, IPA^(key): /na?s/
• Rhymes: -a?s

Etymology 1

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

Adjective

nice (comparative nicer, superlative nicest)

1. Pleasant, satisfactory. [from 18th c.]
   • 1998, Baha Men – “Who Let the Dogs Out?”

     When the party was nice, the party was jumpin' (Hey, Yippie, Yi, Yo)

   • 2008, Rachel Cooke, The Guardian, 20 Apr.:

     "What's difficult is when you think someone is saying something nice about you, but you're not quite sure."

2. Of a person: friendly, attractive. [from 18th c.]
3. Respectable; virtuous. [from 18th c.]

4. (with and) Shows that the given adjective is desirable, or acts as a mild intensifier; pleasantly, quite. [from 18th c.]
5. (obsolete) Silly, ignorant; foolish. [14th-17th c.]
6. (now rare) Particular in one's conduct; scrupulous, painstaking; choosy. [from 14th c.]
   • 1999, Joyce Crick, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams, Oxford 2008, p.83:

     But if I dispense with the dreams of neurotics, my main material, I cannot be too nice [transl. wählerisch] in my dealings with the remainder.

7. (obsolete) Particular as regards rules or qualities; strict. [16th-19th c.]
   • 1818, Jane Austen, Persuasion, chapter 16:

     "Good company requires only birth, education and manners, and with regard to education is not very nice. Birth and good manners are essential."

8. Showing or requiring great precision or sensitive discernment; subtle. [from 16th c.]
   • 1914: Saki, Laura:

     "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."

   • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber 1992, p.131:

     It would be a nice theological point to try and establish whether Ophis is Moslem or gnostic.

   • 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador 2007, p.242:

     Why it should have attained such longevity is a nice question.

9. (obsolete) Easily injured; delicate; dainty.
10. (obsolete) Doubtful, as to the outcome; risky. [16th-19th c.]
    • 1822, T. Creevey, Reminiscences, 28 Jul.:

      It has been a damned nice thing - the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.

Usage notes

Sometimes used sarcastically to mean the opposite or to connote excess:

• 1710, Jonathan Swift, The Examiner No. XIV

  I have strictly observed this rule, and my imagination this minute represents before me a certain great man famous for this talent, to the constant practice of which he owes his twenty years’ reputation of the most skilful head in England, for the management of nice affairs.

• 1930, H.M. Walker, The Laurel-Hardy Murder Case

  Here's another nice mess you've gotten us into.

• 1973, Cockerel Chorus, Nice One, Cyril!

  Nice one, Cyril!

Synonyms

• (easy to like: person): charming, delightful, friendly, kind, lovely, pleasant, sweet
• (easy to like: thing): charming, delightful, lovely, pleasant
• (having a pleasant taste or aroma): appetising/appetizing, delicious, moreish (informal), scrummy (slang), scrumptious (slang), tasty
• (subtle): fine, subtle

Antonyms

• (easy to like: person): horrible, horrid, nasty
• (easy to like: thing): horrible, horrid, nasty
• (having a pleasant taste or aroma): awful, disgusting, foul, horrible, horrid, nasty, nauseating, putrid, rancid, rank, sickening, distasteful, gross, unsatisfactory
• (respectable; virtuous): naughty

Derived terms

Related terms

• nicety

Translations

Descendants

• ? Dutch: nice
• ? German: nice
• ? Danish: nice
• ? Swedish: najs, nice
• ? Norwegian:
  • Norwegian Bokmål: nice

Adverb

nice (comparative nicer, superlative nicest)

1. (colloquial) Nicely.

Interjection

nice!

1. Used to signify a job well done.

2. Used to signify approval.

Translations

Noun

nice (uncountable)

1. niceness.

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

nice (third-person singular simple present nices, present participle nicing, simple past and past participle niced)

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

Derived terms

• renice

Further reading

• nice in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• nice in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• nice at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Nice at NiceDefinition.com

Anagrams

• Ince, Niec, cien, cine, cine-, icen

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?n?t?s?]
• Rhymes: -?ts?
• Hyphenation: ni?ce

Noun

nice

1. dative/locative singular of nika

Anagrams

• Ince

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English nice.

Adjective

nice (used only predicatively, not comparable)

1. (slang) nice

French

Etymology

From Old French nice, inherited from Latin nescius.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nis/

Adjective

nice (plural nices)

1. (archaic) candid, naive

Derived terms

• nicet

Further reading

• “nice” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

German

Etymology

English nice

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /na??s/

Adjective

nice (comparative nicer, superlative am nicesten)

1. (colloquial) good, nice

Further reading

• “nice” in Duden online
• “nice” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Middle English

Adjective

nice

1. Alternative form of nyce

Turkish

Etymology 1

From Ottoman Turkish ????? (nice, “how much”), from Proto-Turkic *n??e, equative form of *n? (“what”). See ne (“what”), cognate to Karakhanid ????? (n???, “how much”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ni?d??e]

Adjective

nice (comparative daha nice, superlative en nice)

1. many

Synonyms

• çok

Etymology 2

Ultimately from Proto-Turkic *n?- (“interrogative archetype”).

Adverb

nice

1. (dialectal or poetic) how

Synonyms

• nas?l

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???(?)/
• (Irish) IPA^(key): [???]
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /????/, /???/

• Rhymes: -??(r)

Etymology 1

From Middle English rare, from Old French rare, rere (“rare, uncommon”), from Latin r?rus (“loose, spaced apart, thin, infrequent”), from Proto-Indo-European *er(e)-, *r?- (“friable, thin”). Replaced native Middle English gesen (“rare, scarce”) (from Old English g?sne), Middle English seld (“rare, uncommon”) (from Old English selden), and Middle English seldscene (“rare, rarely seen, infrequent”) (from Old English selds?ne; see seldsome).

Adjective

rare (comparative rarer, superlative rarest)

1. Very uncommon; scarce.

   Synonyms: scarce, selcouth, seld, seldsome, selly, geason, uncommon; see also Thesaurus:rare

   Antonyms: common, frequent; see also Thesaurus:common
2. (of a gas) Thin; of low density.
3. (Britain, slang) Good; enjoyable.
   • 1981, Chris Difford (lyrics), Glenn Tilbrook (vocal), "Vanity Fair" (song):

     Sees her reflection in a butcher shop.

     She finds it all quite rare

     That her meat's all vanity fair.

Derived terms

• rare bird
• rare earth mineral

Related terms

• rarity

Translations

Noun

rare (plural rares)

1. (gaming) A scarce or uncommon item.
   • 1995, George Baxter, Larry W. Smith, Mastering Magic Cards (page 116)

     Most of the time, you do this by trading low-valued rares for more valuable ones or trading uncommons for rares. Other times it's trading cards that are in print for ones that are out of print, or low-value rares for good uncommons.

Etymology 2

From a dialectal variant of rear, from Middle English rere, from Old English hr?r, hr?re (“not thoroughly cooked, underdone, lightly boiled”), from hr?ran (“to move, shake, agitate”), from Proto-Germanic *hr?zijan? (“to stir”), from Proto-Indo-European *?roHs- (“to mix, stir, cook”). Related to Old English hr?r (“stirring, busy, active, strong, brave”). More at rear.

Alternative forms

• reer, rere (British)

Adjective

rare (comparative rarer or more rare, superlative rarest or most rare)

1. (cooking) Particularly of meat, especially beefsteak: cooked very lightly, so the meat is still red.

   Antonym: well done

Derived terms

• medium rare

Translations

Etymology 3

Variant of rear.

Verb

rare (third-person singular simple present rares, present participle raring, simple past and past participle rared)

1. (US, intransitive) To rear, rise up, start backwards.
   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage 2007, p. 328:

     Frank pretended to rare back as if bedazzled, shielding his eyes with a forearm.

2. (US, transitive) To rear, bring up, raise.

Usage notes

• Principal current, non-literary use is of the present participle raring with a verb in "raring to". The principal verb in that construction is go. Thus, raring to go ("eager (to start something)") is the expression in which rare is most often encountered as a verb.

Etymology 4

Compare rather, rath.

Adjective

rare (comparative more rare, superlative most rare)

1. (obsolete) early

References

• Rare in The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English

Anagrams

• arré, rear

Danish

Adjective

rare

1. plural and definite singular attributive of rar

Dutch

Alternative forms

• raren (Brabantian)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ra?.r?/

Adjective

rare

1. Inflected form of raar

Noun

rare m (plural raren, diminutive rareke n)

1. weird person

   Synonym: rare vogel

References

• [1]

French

Etymology

Borrowed (in this form) from Latin r?rus. Compare the inherited Old French rer, rere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???/

Adjective

rare (plural rares)

1. rare

Derived terms

• métal rare
• oiseau rare
• perle rare
• rareté
• rarissime
• se faire rare
• terre rare

Further reading

• “rare” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• erra

German

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a???

Adjective

rare

1. inflection of rar:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Ido

Adverb

rare

1. rarely

   Antonyms: freque, ofte

Italian

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -are

Adjective

rare

1. feminine plural of raro

Anagrams

• erra

Latin

Etymology 1

Adverb

r?r? (comparative r?rius, superlative r?rissim?)

1. thinly, sparsely, here and there
2. rarely, seldom

Etymology 2

Adjective

r?re

1. vocative masculine singular of r?rus

References

• rare in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• rare in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Middle English

Alternative forms

• rere

Etymology

From Old French rer and Latin r?rus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ra?r(?)/, /?r??r(?)/

Adjective

rare

1. airy, vacuous
2. porous, breathable
3. sparsely spread
4. rare, uncommon, scarce
5. small, little

Related terms

• rarefien

Descendants

• English: rare

References

• “r?r(e, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-03-29.

Norman

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin r?rus.

Adjective

rare m or f

1. (Jersey) rare

Derived terms

• rarement (“rarely”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

rare

1. inflection of rar:
   1. definite singular
   2. plural

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

rare

1. inflection of rar:
   1. definite singular
   2. plural

Swedish

Adjective

rare

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of rar.

Anagrams

• rear