pleasant

Pleasant is nice in a mild, unhurried way — the temperature of a good afternoon rather than a great one. A pleasant walk by the river, a pleasant surprise in the post, a pleasant woman at the desk who takes her time with you.

It works on weather, on places, on people and on evenings: a pleasant breeze, a pleasant smell of bread, a pleasant enough chap. Watch the strength of it — pleasant is warm but small, so calling a meal pleasant is a good deal cooler than calling it wonderful. The adverb is pleasantly, and it loves one word above all others: pleasantly surprised. The opposite, unpleasant, hits much harder than pleasant does — an unpleasant man is nasty, not merely un-nice. And pleasantries, in the plural, are the small polite noises two people make before the real conversation starts.