nifty

adj., -ti·er, -ti·est.
First-rate; great: a nifty idea.

n., pl., -ties.
A nifty person or thing, especially a clever joke.

[Origin unknown.]

niftily nif'ti·ly adv.
niftiness nif'ti·ness n.

adjective

Particularly excellent: divine, fabulous, fantastic, fantastical, glorious, marvelous, sensational, splendid, superb, terrific, wonderful. Informal dandy, dreamy, great, ripping, super, swell, tremendous. Slang cool, groovy, hot, keen¹, neat. Idioms: out of this world. See good/bad.

adj

Definition: marvelous
Antonyms: bad, displeasing, unhandy, unpleasant

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Origin: 1866

Sure, we had been engaged in a great Civil War, but some Americans were managing to have a nifty time in spite of it. One of them was Mark Twain, who used nifty in his depiction of slang used in Virginia City, Nevada, in the early 1860s. "As all the peoples of the earth had representative adventurers in the Silverland," Twain wrote in Roughing It (1872), "and as each adventurer had brought the slang of his nation or his locality with him, the combination made the slang of Nevada the richest and the most infinitely varied and copious that had ever existed anywhere in the world, perhaps, except in the mines of California in the 'early days.' Slang was the language of Nevada. It was hard to preach a sermon without it, and be understood."

Twain continues with the story of Buck Fanshaw's funeral. A fireman, Scotty Briggs, making arrangements for the funeral, says to the puzzled minister, "We are going to get the thing up regardless, you know. He was always nifty himself, and so you bet you his funeral ain't going to be no slouch--solid silver door-plate on his coffin, six plumes on the hearse...."

Another writer of the gold- and silver-fevered West, Bret Harte, employs nifty in a poem written in the 1860s, "The Tale of a Pony." He sets his humorous story in far-away Paris, but uses the American slang word to describe his young heroine's "new turn-out," or horse-drawn carriage: "Smart! You bet your life 'twas that! Nifty! (short for magnificat) " Harte's explanation of nifty is not meant to be taken seriously (in fact, the word's origins are unknown), but the word he and Twain presented to the public has found many nifty uses ever since.

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Dansk (Danish)
adj. - smart, interessant, sjov
n. - smart bemærkning, smart person

Nederlands (Dutch)
behendig, hip, grappige opmerking, handigheidje

Français (French)
adj. - excellent, de première qualité, de première classe
n. - quelque chose considéré comme excellent, remarque/plaisanterie subtile

Deutsch (German)
adj. - clever, flott
n. - geschickte Antwort

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - φίνος

Italiano (Italian)
elegante, astuto

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - bonito (gír.)

Русский (Russian)
клевый

Español (Spanish)
adj. - formidable, estupendo
n. - formidable, estupendo

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - tjusig

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
俏皮的, 极好的, 俏皮话, 漂亮话

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 俏皮的, 極好的
n. - 俏皮話, 漂亮話

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 좋은, 재치 있는
n. - 재치 있는 말, 매력적인 여성

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - いきな, 気のきいた
n. - すばらしいもの, 気のきいたことば

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) ذكي, ماهر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮יפה, מושך, פיקח, מסריח, גדול‬
n. - ‮הערה שנונה או בדיחה‬

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