I’d always assumed “ninny” was short for “nincompoop”. But when I compare the dates here to the ones in your old article on “nincompoop”, it looks like “ninny” predates it by a few decades.
Bill:
September 6th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
When i was younger the term ninny was defined as you say but was always taken to also mean a breast, as with boob having the same double meaning, Did I make this up ar soes anyone else recall this same double entendre?
Hannah:
July 24th, 2013 at 11:01 pm
That is what my mother and her mother used for breast/ breast milk. Which is what led me to this site trying to figure out how they came up with that!
Ninny meaning “breast” comes from the French “néné”
Stephen:
April 23rd, 2020 at 2:40 pm
First I’ll work ‘hammerhead’ into an inter-office memo, from there I’ll ease in ‘ninnyhammer’.
Carol:
February 8th, 2022 at 11:32 am
Thanks for clearing up the meaning of the word “ninny“. My mother used to refer to it as having to do with the breast, so I was really confused. It makes sense that it comes from the French.
Dave:
May 9th, 2022 at 5:32 am
I too assumed that ninny was an abbreviation of nincompoop, which always looked like a very silly word to me.
Ninnies was a word used by my contemporaries which was used to refer to nipples, not breasts per se.
You live and learn!
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Simon:
August 3rd, 2011 at 4:45 pm
I’d always assumed “ninny” was short for “nincompoop”. But when I compare the dates here to the ones in your old article on “nincompoop”, it looks like “ninny” predates it by a few decades.
Bill:
September 6th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
When i was younger the term ninny was defined as you say but was always taken to also mean a breast, as with boob having the same double meaning, Did I make this up ar soes anyone else recall this same double entendre?
Hannah:
July 24th, 2013 at 11:01 pm
That is what my mother and her mother used for breast/ breast milk. Which is what led me to this site trying to figure out how they came up with that!
Ian William johnson:
May 6th, 2017 at 6:49 am
Ninny meaning “breast” comes from the French “néné”
Stephen:
April 23rd, 2020 at 2:40 pm
First I’ll work ‘hammerhead’ into an inter-office memo, from there I’ll ease in ‘ninnyhammer’.
Carol:
February 8th, 2022 at 11:32 am
Thanks for clearing up the meaning of the word “ninny“. My mother used to refer to it as having to do with the breast, so I was really confused. It makes sense that it comes from the French.
Dave:
May 9th, 2022 at 5:32 am
I too assumed that ninny was an abbreviation of nincompoop, which always looked like a very silly word to me.
Ninnies was a word used by my contemporaries which was used to refer to nipples, not breasts per se.
You live and learn!