A nifty haircut

[Dready]

Hello teachers, can you please tell me, does an expression "nifty haircut" sound weird and wrong to an English native speaker? I just tried to complement an American girl on her new hairdo and said, "What a nifty haircut" but she told me it was weird phrase to hear for her. Saying "nifty" I was thinking "stylish, cool".
Was she right that it doesn't sound right or it's just her vocabulary is pretty small?

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello teachers, can you please tell me, does an expression "nifty haircut" sound weird and wrong to an English native speaker? I just tried to complement an American girl on her new hairdo and said, "What a nifty haircut" but she told me it was weird phrase to hear for her. Saying "nifty" I was thinking "stylish, cool".
Was she right that it doesn't sound right or it's just her vocabulary is pretty small?

It sounds fine to me and I'd have understood exactly what you meant. I am a BrE speaker though and you were speaking to an American girl. Maybe it's not so common in AmE?

 

[birdeen's call]

I've heard Americans use "nifty" but none of them was a youth.

 

[Dready]

Thanks for clearing that for me. I just saw one tattoo master saying, "This tattoo looks nifty" to a client on an American show the other day. That's why I thought that phrase was OK to use in such cases.

P.S. And yes, the tattoo master was a lady in her 40s. Maybe young people don't use it that much.

 

[Ouisch]

I still occasionally use "nifty", but I'm getting on in years and also yell at those young whippersnapper kids to get off of my lawn. ;-) Other somewhat dated phrases that mean "nifty" are "keen" and "neat" (or "neato"). People usually picture clean-cut kids from a 1950s-era TV show when they hear these words.

 

[emsr2d2]

P.S. And yes, the tattoo master was a lady in her 40s. Maybe young people don't use it that much.

I'm going to overlook that suggestion that someone in their 40s can't be young! ;-)

 

[SoothingDave]

I still occasionally use "nifty", but I'm getting on in years and also yell at those young whippersnapper kids to get off of my lawn. ;-) Other somewhat dated phrases that mean "nifty" are "keen" and "neat" (or "neato"). People usually picture clean-cut kids from a 1950s-era TV show when they hear these words.

That's just swell. ;-)

 

[Dready]

I'm going to overlook that suggestion that someone in their 40s can't be young! ;-)

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone. It's not really about age, it's about how one feels. ;-)

 

[konungursvia]

It sounds a bit odd to me. Here, nifty has overtones of clever, like sharp, but more so. Of course, it isn't wrong, but to me, it does sound a tad strange.