"Nice and" expression question.

[Carol]

zanooda wrote:
><snip> Is
> it true that in the expression "nice and" with the following
adjective (for example, "nice and warm" sweater) the word "nice"
doesn't have it's own meaning, but just intensifies the second
adjective? Some dictionaries explain it like this, but there is no
detailed explanations with many examples, so I'm not sure. 
<snip>

Carol responds:

I know that several other people have attempted to answer you, but
I'll make my own attempt, anyway.

"Nice," which once meant "precise" (though before that it actually
meant "foolish or silly") has, ironically, lost most of its meaning.
One of Jane Austen's characters complained about its lack of precision
(nice book, nice day, nice walk, nice girls) and called it a word that
could be used for anything.

That said, I think you're right about "nice and" serving merely as an
intensifier. I thought of "agreeably" rather than "pleasantly," but
the meaning is so similar that it doesn't matter much. Still, if you
tell a kid to sit up nice and straight, I doubt he'll consider the
straightness pleasant, however pleasant or agreeable it may be to his
mother.

I think the earliest use of "nice and" was in the phrase "nice and
early." I'd have thought it would be the alliterative "nice and neat."

Anyway, I've deleted your Ollivander example so I can't remember what
it was, but obviously the wand had a trait that Ollivander approved of
or he wouldn't have put "nice and" in front of it.

The only example I can think of where "pleasantly" or "agreeably"
wouldn't fit particularly well as a paraphrase for "nice and" is in
"Turn around nice and slow[ly]," which a policeman might say to a
criminal (or a robber to his victim). Even there, you could argue that
"nice and" means "agreeably"--from the speaker's point of view, anyway.

At any rate, easy, straight, early, neat, and most other adjectives
used with "nice and" are--or can be--viewed as describing "nice"
(pleasant or agreeable) traits.

That's nice, isn't it?

Carol, wishing everyone a nice night/day ;-)