Pamby

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Characterized by weakness or excessive softness; lacking in vigor or strength; overly sentimental or feeble in disposition
2. Exhibiting a delicate or ineffectual nature; deficient in robustness or determination; marked by an exaggerated gentleness or frailty
3. Displaying insufficient toughness or resilience; soft and lacking toughness; excessively tender or faint-hearted in character

Etymology: Ambrose Phillips, a poet of the early 1700s, wrote pastoral verses so sugary and sentimental that they became a joke. In 1726 Henry Carey lampooned them in a poem titled "Namby-Pamby," mangling Phillips's name into a nonsense rhyme that stuck. The name became a word for anything insipid, overly sweet, or lacking backbone, and "namby-pamby" followed. "Pamby" is simply a clipping of that longer phrase, keeping only the second half of the reduplicated joke. It carries the same sense of feeble softness, and it kept the satirical flavor of a poet's name bent out of shape to mock his style.

Synonyms: pansy, wimp, weakling, sissy, coward

Antonyms: tough, strong, brave, courageous, heroic