namby-pamby

English

WOTD – 11 March 2006

Etymology

From the poem Namby-Pamby (1726) by Henry Carey, a satire on the sentimental pastorals of the poet Ambrose Phillips.^[1][2]

Pronunciation

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Adjective

namby-pamby (comparative more namby-pamby or namby-pambier, superlative most namby-pamby or namby-pambiest)

1. Insipid and sentimental.
2. Lacking vigor or decisiveness; spineless; wishy-washy.
   • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:

     […] she was still, as heretofore, a namby-pamby milk-and-water affected creature […]

   • 1999, Nicola Diane Thompson, quoting Marie Corelli (c. 1905), Victorian Women Writers and the Woman Question, page 246:

     She boasts to Bentley that the Prince of Wales admires her books for the “fearless courage” of her opinions. “He said, ‘There is no namby-pamby nonsense about you – you write with a man’s pen, and I should think you would fight your enemies like a man!’ These words delighted me, for to be ‘namby-pamby’ would be a horror to me,” she writes.

Translations

insipid and sentimental

French: gnangnan (fr) Italian: sdolcinato (it) m, insipido (it) m, insulso (it) m Spanish: ñoño (es)

lacking vigor or decisiveness

Italian: smidollato (it) m, mollaccione m, codardo (it) m Spanish: soso (es) Swedish: mjäkig (sv)

Noun

namby-pamby (plural namby-pambies)

1. One who is insipid, sentimental, or weak.
   • 1725, Capt. Gordon [Henry Carey], Namby-Pamby: Or a Pangyric on the New Versification Addressed to A⸺ P⸺ Esq., →OCLC:

     Namby Pamby’s doubly Mild,
     Once a Man, and twice a Child;
     To his Hanging-Sleeves restor’d
     Now he foots it like a Lord;
     Now he Pumps his little Wits;
     Sh—ing Writes and Writing Sh—s,^[sic]

2. Talk or writing which is weakly sentimental or affectedly pretty.
   • 1892 [1843], Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Life and writings of Addison”, in Lord Macaulay's Essays‎, page 790:

     Another of Addison’s favourite companions was Ambrose Phillipps, a good Whig and a middling poet, who had the honour of bringing into fashion a species of composition which has been called, after his name, Namby-Pamby.

Synonyms

• (weak person): namby, nestle-cock, sissy, softy; see also Thesaurus:milksop

Translations

one who is insipid, sentimental, or weak

French: gnangnan (fr) m Italian: sdolcinato (it) m, mollaccione m, codardo (it) m, femminuccia (it), mammoletta, pollo (it), merlo (it), smidollato (it), pappa molle, pappamolle, rammollito (it), fifone (it), mollusco (it), vigliacco (it), pusillanime (it), eunuco (it), debole (it) m, pisciasotto (it), cacasotto (it), pauroso (it), vile (it), checca (it), ricchione (it) Spanish: ñoño (es) m

Verb

namby-pamby (third-person singular simple present namby-pambies, present participle namby-pambying, simple past and past participle namby-pambied)

1. To coddle.
   • 2012, Alan Tyers, Who Moved My Stilton?: The Victorian Guide to Getting Ahead in Business:

     While we business men of Britain have little time for this sort of namby-pambying towards the next generation, who are often feckless, tearful, small, dirty or all of the above, there is no doubt that youths have their place in commerce.

Derived terms

• namby-pambical
• namby-pambiness
• namby-pambyism

 

References

1. Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “namby-pamby”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
2. “namby-pamby”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.