>
>
> ninny <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=ninny>
> <http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=ninny>
>     "simpleton, fool," 1593, perhaps a misdivision of an innocent, or
>     from the pet form of the proper name Innocent, with sense
>     influenced by the name's literal meaning. There may be some
>     influence in the word of It. ninno "baby, child."
>
(cf. nino -- sorry, can't get the accent on -- baby in Spanish)
It also reminds me of:

nanny <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=nanny>
<http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=nanny>
    "children's nurse," 1795, from widespread child's word for "female
    adult other than mother" (cf. Gk. nanna "aunt"). The word also is a
    nickname form of the fem. proper name Anne, which probably is the
    sense in nanny goat (1788, cf. billy goat). The verb meaning "to be
    unduly protective" is from 1954. Nanny-house "brothel" is slang from
    c.1700.

Nanny is still the most common name for grandmother (nearly always the
mother's mother) in many areas of the Maritimes and New England, as
well, I think. Two of my children called nursing "na-na" and it was
mistaken, more than once, for them wanting their grandmother.

>It turns out that in the Mende
>language, 'ninny' means breast.
>
>My mother never traveled outside the United States.  Never heard of the
>Mende.  Yet that word surfaced in her vocabulary and thus, in mine.  Call it
>evidence that in the midst of brutalization and humiliation, even when one
>is ripped away from every cultural sanction, from everything and everyone
>that you know, somehow, some things survive to be passed on.  Small things.
>Things you wouldn't think about twice under ordinary circumstances.  Except
>that there are so few of them.  So you treasure every one.
>
I think we owe it to ourselves to think twice (thrice) about how
important nurturing is.

Jo-Anne


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