| 词组 | nicely |
| 释义 | nicely Objections have been made in the past to the use of" this adverb in a sense synonymous with well or satisfactorily, as in "That will do nicely." Criticism of such usage dates back to the 19th century: • The very quintessence of popinjay vulgarity is reached when nicely is made to do service for well, in this wise: "How do you do?" "Nicely. " "How are you?" "Nicely."—Ayres 1881 Ayres was actually criticizing two different uses. In the first one (with do) nicely functions as an adverb, and in the second one (with be) it functions as an adjective. The adjectival use of nicely may have been the peculiarity that actually caught Ayres's attention: • "How is thee, Ruth?" she said ... "Nicely", said Ruth —Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852 (OED) This adjective has had little, if any, use outside of dialectal speech. The adverb nicely in its sense "satisfactorily, very well," on the other hand, has appeared in reputable writing since the early 1800s: • Your flesh, properly cured, might hang up nicely against the forthcoming bean-season —Walter Savage Landor, Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen, 1829 (OED) Criticism of this adverb, which was not unusual among American commentators in the first part of the 20th century, might never have amounted to much if it were not for the adverb's association with the dialectal adjective. In any case, such criticism seems now to have died out altogether. It apparently breathed its last when 68 percent of the usage panel of Heritage 1969 found the "satisfactorily" sense of nicely acceptable in written use. This sense continues to occur commonly in writing, and no one now questions its propriety. • It seems to be catching on nicely at Green Bay — John Fischer, Harper's, February 1971 • The cord-grass habitat ... was doing nicely, but there were no seaside sparrows —Norman Boucher, N.Y. Times Mag., 13 Apr. 1980 • Nine months later, her father... is recovering nicely —Christopher Stone, US, 12 Oct. 1982 • His own restaurant ... could stand up nicely to many of these places —Colman Andrews, Metropolitan Home, March 1984 • Rivers recovered nicely and began practice —Ed Burns, Sports Illustrated, 19 Nov. 1986 |
| 随便看 |
|
英语用法大全包含2888条英语用法指南，基本涵盖了全部常用英文词汇及语法点的翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。