Nice

Nice , city (1990 pop. 345,674), capital of Alpes-Maritimes dept., SE France, on the Mediterranean Sea. Nice is the most famous resort on the French Riviera . Although the economy depends mainly on the tourist trade, the electronics industry as well as other manufactures are important. The old port of Nice handles both commercial fishing and passenger service to Corsica. The new port, west of the city, engages in more commercial shipping. Nice also has one of France's major airports. There are several churches dating from the 12th through the 17th cent. The Carnival of Nice marks the height of the city's festival season.

Probably a Greek colony ( Nikaia, or Nicaea in Latin) established in the 5th cent. BC, Nice became an episcopal see in the 4th cent. AD It was pillaged and burned by Muslim forces in 859 and 880. In the 13th and 14th cent. the city belonged to the counts of Provence and Savoy. In 1543 the united forces of Francis I and Barbarossa attacked and burned Nice. It was annexed to France in 1793, restored to Sardinia in 1814, and again ceded to France in 1860 after a plebiscite. At the beginning of the French Revolution the city was a haven for Royalist émigrés. Its popularity as a resort began in the late 18th century, increasing with the building of roads in the 1820s and the arrival of the railroad in 1864. At first a retreat for royals and aristocrats, the city became a middle class resort as accessibility to it grew. Nice was claimed and occupied by Mussolini during World War II.

Bibliography: See R. Kanigel, High Season (2002).

nice nice work if you can get it expressing envy of what is perceived to be another's more favourable situation, from a song (1937) by Ira Gershwin.

See also naughty but nice.

nice / nīs/ • adj. 1. pleasant; agreeable; satisfactory: we had a nice time | that wasn't very nice of him | Jeremy had been very nice to her. ∎  (of a person) pleasant in manner; good-natured; kind: he's a really nice guy. 2. fine or subtle: a nice distinction. ∎  requiring careful thought or attention: a nice point. 3. archaic fastidious; scrupulous. PHRASES: make nice (or nice-nice) inf. be pleasant or polite to someone, typically in a hypocritical way: the seat next to him was empty, so he wasn't required to make nice with a stranger. nice and —— satisfactorily or adequately in terms of the quality described: it's nice and warm in here. nice one inf. expressing approval or commendation. ∎  used sarcastically to comment on an inept act: oh, nice one, she put her finger up to her eye and tugged at the skin. nice to meet you a polite formula used on being introduced to someone. nice work inf. expressing approval of a task well done. nice work if you can get it inf. used to express envy of what is perceived to be another person's more favorable situation, esp. if they seem to have reached it with little effort.DERIVATIVES: nice·ness n.