I wonder what nuances you feel this word has? It became the subject of a protracted discussion over breakfast in my daughter’s NYC apartment recently. It was all about orange juice!
We had commented on the deliciousness of the freshly squeezed juice in the hotel restaurant. I went on to say that although not freshly squeezed, the juice she had given me was ‘fine, absolutely fine.’ She looked at me appalled! To her it seemed that ‘fine’ meant mediocre, ok-ish. To me it meant perfectly good! Very different connotations.
Once home again I looked up the word and it does indeed say very different things to different people and I’m not even going into further meanings of the word ‘fine’ as in fine sewing, suggesting careful, skilled, accurate stitches with a thin needle and thin thread.
Wikipedia goes so far as to advise second language speakers of English to avoid the word ‘fine’ completely. Gracious!
Fascinating, I love words. And, how am I today? Fine of course.