Namby-Pamby
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:06 am
March 9, 2014:
• namby-pamby •
Pronunciation: næm-bi-pæm-bi • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. (UK) A syrupy, sentimental, insipid or childish person. 2. (US) A weak-kneed, fearful and indecisive person, lacking willpower.
Notes: It should come as no surprise to anyone that many whimsical derivations have devolved from today's word. We might expect the adjective namby-pambyish and the noun, namby-pambiness (watch for the shift of Y to I). However, various writers have suggested namby-pambical "like a namby-pamby" and a noun, namby-pambics "the behavior of a namby-pamby." You might wonder why so much trouble when you can use this word itself as an adjective: "Ben Dover is such a namby-pamby coward."
In Play: Although the meaning of this word is demeaning, the humor pervading it reduces its bite, allowing it to be used in referring to friends and loved ones: "Ben and Eileen Dover are such namby-pambies they never go to baseball games for fear of being hit by a foul ball." Remember, however, that this word can also refer to persons, places and things that are simply mushy and sentimental: "That old namby-pamby loves watching those old namby-pamby romance movies on the classical movie channel."
Word History: A disparaging imitation of a childish pronunciation of the name of Ambrose Philips (1675-1749), author of sentimental poems for and about children. Philips was ridiculed by Henry Carey and Alexander Pope, especially in Carey's satiric poem Namby Pamby, which appeared in 1726. The word is a rhyming compound, a particularly whimsical kind of wordplay. We see it in higgledy-piggledy, hocus-pocus, teeny-weeny, lovey-dovey, nitwit, and hundreds of others. All bear overtones of facetiousness.