Wanderin' Thoughts

The time change has thrown me off, and my brain fog is pretty bad right now. So if this is all over the place, have patience with me. 😉

I’m still slugging my way through The Discoverie of Witchcraft, and I came across this passage:

But some are so nise, that they condemne generallie all sorts of divinations, denieng those things that in nature have manifest causes, and are so framed, as they forshew things to come, and in that shew admonish us of things after to insue, exhibiting signes of unknowne and future matters to be judged upon, by the order, lawe, and course of nature proposed unto us by God.

The word “nise” threw me off because I kinda-sorta thought it meant nice, but I figured I’d look it up in my ever-trusty companion for this sort of thing, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Now, “nise” could mean noise, nice, nose, or neeze (a variant of sneeze). Given the context, I’m sure my first guess was right — that it’s nice. But, also given the context, it doesn’t mean what I know it to mean: “friendly, sweet, agreeable,” or even “fastidious and neat.” So I clicked into the definition, and oh boy, was there a rabbit hole there.

Nice has fourteen definitions, and most of those have sub-definitions — and that’s just for the adjective. Luckily for me, the first one fits our sentence:

But some are so foolish (simple, silly, ignorant) that they condemn all sorts of divination…

That definition is obsolete, of course, which is why I’ve never heard it used that way before. Of the fourteen definitions, ten are marked as obsolete, and one is marked as rare. Which means that we only use the last two these days. Like, how interesting is that? I think it’s way cool. Then again, I read dictionaries for fun, so my idea of cool might be a little off. ^_^

There are a few other definitions that could work here too:

But there are some who are so discriminating that they condemn all sorts of divination…
But there are some who are so faint-hearted that they condemn all sorts of divination…
But there are some who are so particular that they condemn all sorts of divination…
…and so on. But in context with the rest of the paragraph, I think he means foolish or silly.

Honestly, y’all, when I run into words like this that used to mean one thing (heck, not just one thing but so many different things) and now mean something completely different, it just fascinates me. I love language. It’s amazing how fluid it is.

For what it’s worth, silly used to mean “worthy, good,” and “pious, holy,” so there’s some irony for you.

Anyway, that’s what was on my mind today. Thanks for reading. Take care of yourself. Talk to you later.