Nice and Interesting for a Small fortune which is Pretty good.

[Steve]

I like discussion the 'Nice and ...' discussion. Not only
do we expand the meaning of language for others, but we take a
critical look at its usage ourselves.

In the 'Nice and ...' discusion, and in the context of transation
of odd English expressions, someone brought up the expression
'small fortune' and how that would be or could be translated. 

So, I was driving my car, pondering the mysteries of language, and
thought, well $1,000,000 is a 'small' fortune, $10,000,000 is
a medium fortune, and $100,000,000 is a pretty huge fortune.

Then like a bolt of lightening, the use of 'pretty' struck me as
immensely odd.

So, what does 'pretty' mean? More or less 'beautiful'.

Q: How are you?
A: Oh...pretty good.
Q: Really, so you are beautifully good?

Q: How's the weather?
A: Pretty cold.
Q: What? It's a beautifully cold day?

Q: Heard you were sick, how are you feeling?
A: Pretty bad?
Q: You feel beautifully bad? 

Of course, like 'nice and...', 'pretty' has little meaning at
all, as we can see below -

Q: How are you?
A: Good.

Q: How's the weather?
A: Cold.

Q: Heard you were sick, how are you feeling?
A: Bad.

"Pretty" serves as an intensifier for the statement.


A few others occurred to me as I was driving.


'Not Bad', as in -

Q: How is that cake that I slaved over for hours?
A: Not bad.
Q: What kind of backhanded half-baked compliment is that!?

Of course, that which is 'not bad' is good. Though I can't
imagine how or why anyone ever thought that saying 'not bad'
was a compliment. 


'What's up?'

This may be more of an American thing, but Americans say 
'What's up?' as a greeting all the time. I've spoken to 
some foreigners who took forever to understand that they 
were merely asking 'How are you?'.

Just a few thoughts from someone with too much time on his
hands.

Steve/bluewizard