▪ I. nanny, n.1
(ˈnænɪ)
Also nannie.
[Appellative use of pet-form of the female name Ann(e: see -y6.]
A child's form of address to a nurse; hence, a children's nurse. Also transf., applied to a person or institution, etc., considered to be unduly protective or apprehensive. Also attrib. and Comb.
| 1795 Lady Newdigate Let. in A. E. Newdigate-Newdegate Cheverels (1898) 154 Nanny Ashcroft got me y⊇ most delightful & perfect Warm Sea Bath last night..after w{supc}{suph} I ate my Bason of Milk & went to Bed. 1861 A. Halliday in H. Mayhew London Labour (1862) Extra vol. 418/2 An old woman..give me a lodging once for two years. We used to call her Nanny. 1864 Chambers's Jrnl. Sept. 506/1 Don't you know I'm a locomotive, and that you should always shunt yourself on to a siding when you hear me coming, Nanny? 1912 A. M. N. Lyons Clara i. 3 That little boy was..inured to the coming and going of ‘nannies’. 1919 [see cig]. 1955 T. H. Pear Eng. Social Differences 273 The effect upon the Nannie-cultured Englishman, of two mothers. 1958 A. Wilson Middle Age of Mrs Eliot i. 98 He was so calm and soothing and nannylike that she wanted to hit him. 1959 Listener 23 Apr. 735/1 Barristers are handled rather like naughty children by their nanny chief clerks. Ibid. 2 July 31/2 They can be nursery memories reproducing folk memory: immemorial nanny-lore. Ibid. 9 July 49/1 An extraordinarily powerful old bureaucratic nanny..goes stalking up and down the United States, pouncing on people who are telling commercial fibs. 1961 J. Wade Back to Life iv. 35 Nan came in... Her nannie days were past. 1965 B. Sweet-Escott Baker St. Irreg. v. 147 There was also a good deal of Nanny work we had to do for Professor Pyke... The professor suffered from the traditional absent-mindedness of his kind, and we were expected to keep track of him. 1972 Times 2 Aug. 26/1 (Advt.), Country loving nannie. 1973 ‘M. Innes’ Appleby's Answer xvii. 155 Blabbing for your old nanny—that's what you'll be. 1973 Times 31 May 10/2 Kicked upstairs by the knighted nannies of his Institute, Hamo is sent on a world tour. 1973 Listener 7 June 742/2 The top authorities..who regulate television should [be]..impervious to the huge army of self-appointed nannies. 1974 Times 2 Feb. 18/3 Our natural modesty led us to cheer on the rest with encouraging cries..while deprecating our own dazzling accomplishments in the way that Nanny would have wished. Ibid. 29 Mar. 19/6 Surely our English cousins, having themselves retired from being ‘nanny to the world’, must understand how we feel. 1974 J. Mann Sticking Place vi. 106 Lorna took Rachel by the arm in a nanny-like way. |
Hence ˈnannified ppl. a.; ˈnannify v.; ˈnanniness, ˈnannyism; ˈnannyish a.
| 1959 Punch 8 Apr. 474/1 Of all the nannyisms that have constrained the English middle classes the most inhibiting has been that favourite injunction about not putting ideas into the child's head. 1960 Guardian 1 July 8/1 The ponified and nannified Children's Bookland created by middle-class writers. 1962 Times 8 Feb. 9/7 Easy for his opponents to smile tolerantly on Wilberforce and make him seem impossibly nannyish. 1962 Listener 13 Dec. 1024/1 Is free speech in this country to be nannified out of existence by official vanity? 1972 J. Rossiter Rope for General Dietz iii. 34 The air of nannyish protectiveness she had possessed in her BEA uniform. 1973 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 June 647/2 Mr Davidson's gentle male nanniness, initiating charming boys only to lose them. |
▪ II. ˈnanny, n.2
Ellipt. for nanny-goat.
| 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer xxviii. 417 He did consider the nanny question and calculated whether a steamer load of those miniature milchers would not pay decently. |
▪ III. nanny, v.
(ˈnænɪ)
[f. nanny n.1]
To act in the manner of a nanny; to be unduly protective. Hence ˈnannying vbl. n.
| 1954 J. Trench Dishonoured Bones ii. 46 Don't nanny me. 1963 Economist 6 July 41/3 Labour..would produce a less compulsively nannying piece of legislation. 1969 Guardian 11 June 11/7 Professional women get none of this obligatory nannying: their main grudge is inequalities of opportunity rather than of pay. 1971 J. Osborne West of Suez i. 35 Devoting all his time to Daddy and nannying him like he does. 1972 E. Longford Wellington: Pillar of State iii. 31 In the short run, his five-year plan for nannying France—for such it soon seemed to be—could only damage the popularity of Wellington. 1974 E. Dewar Dying Business ix. 110 There was no need for you to come nannying me. |