"Nice and" one more time.

[sistermagpie]

Zanooda:
> One last question about "nice and": we can use it to characterize
> *only* inanimate objects/nouns, right? It wouldn't work to describe
> people, would it? If a girl is "nice and pretty", it means that she is
> pretty and she is *also* nice, not that she is
> pleasantly/agreeably/perfectly (and whatever else it was :-)) pretty,
> right :-)?

Magpie:
Nope, you can also use the expression to refer to humans. You probably 
wouldn't say "nice and pretty" about a girl, but you might use it with 
a more specific adjective. For instance, somebody could say about a 
girl: "Just the way I like them--nice and curvy" or "nice and rich." 
But "nice and [whatever]" would have the same meaning when applied to a 
person. (It sounds a bit sleazy in those cases, though!)

Although, just to make things confusing, you absolutely could say the 
exact same terms without meaning the expression. You could say "She is 
nice and pretty" meaning that she is both pretty and a pleasant/nice 
person." But if you were saying that you would probably instinctively 
say "pretty and nice" instead of "nice and pretty" so it wouldn't sound 
like the expression.

-m