nannyn.1adj.
/ˈnani/, U.S. /ˈnæni/ A. n.1
1.
a. A person, esp. a woman, employed by a family to look after a child or children; a children's nursemaid. Also as a familiar form of address. Cf. nan n.2 1, nana n.1 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > education > upbringing > [noun] > one who brings up > nurse
nouricec1225
nursea1325
rockera1325
nourish1340
nursha1382
nursery nurse1494
nutrice1529
nurse-girl1596
dry-nursea1616
nursey1760
bonne1771
ayah1782
nanny1785
momma1803
nursery girla1812
mammy1837
nanac1844
day nurse1855
caretaker1858
nursekin1862
Norland1894
nounou1894
nurselet1894
Plunket1909
metapelet1950
society > authority > subjection > service > servant > personal or domestic servant > domestic servant > [noun] > nursemaid
nursemaid1657
nursery-maid1662
ayah1782
nanny1785
nan1940
1785 in J. DeCastro Mem. (1824) 38 (title) The two nannies.
1795 Lady Newdigate Let. in A. E. Newdigate-Newdegate Cheverels (1898) 154 Nanny Ashcroft got me ye most delightful & perfect Warm Sea Bath last night..after wch I ate my Bason of Milk & went to Bed.
1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park I. i. 11 I will send Nanny to London on purpose, and she may have a bed at her cousin, the sadler's, and the child be appointed to meet her there. View more context for this quotation
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’.
1947 A. B. Meering Handbk. for Nursery Nurses 1 The Nursery Nurse who prefers the care of individual children..may become a nanny in a private family.
1999 Daily Tel. 5 Feb. 40/5 If a nanny wants to spend nine hours making ladybird cakes for her two-year-old twin charges, that is simply recorded as fact.
b. A grandmother. Frequently as a form of address (used esp. by a child). Cf. nan n.2 2, nana n.1 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > kinsman or relation > grandparent > [noun] > grandmother
eldmotherc1000
grandamc1225
good-dame1400
grandmother1424
beldamc1440
lucky1629
granny1659
grandmama1694
lucky minnie1755
grandma1772
grandmammy1789
gran1829
babushka1834
abuela1836
grandmom1860
grandmum1861
grammy1886
dadi1888
minnie1888
grams1893
bubbe1895
nana1899
gram1923
nanny1927
lola1934
abuelita1937
oma1948
nain1954
nan1955
makulu1980
omi1988
1927 W. E. Collinson Contemp. Eng. 7 Children still use, as in the nineties, and long before, mummy, daddy, nanny or nanna, nursie.
1958 M. Kerr People of Ship Street 48 The granny, or ‘nin’, or ‘nanny’, or ‘nanna’ or ‘gran’ as she is often called.
1979 J. Cooper Class (1980) ii. 55 A lot of confusion is caused by the word ‘nanny’. To the upper and middle classes it means someone who looks after children for money... To the working classes ‘Nanny’..is one's grandmother who..probably also looks after the children—but is not paid for it.
1990 D. Richards Evening Snow will bring Such Peace vii. 93 ‘She went out to supper.’ ‘Out to supper—out to supper—out to supper with who—’ ‘Nannie and Grampie.’
2. A person, institution, etc., considered to be unduly protective or interfering.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > care, protection, or charge > [noun] > one who looks after > excessively protective person or institution
nanny1959
1959 Listener 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.
1973 Listener 7 June 742/2 The top authorities..who regulate television should [be]..impervious to the huge army of self-appointed nannies.
1999 Sunday Times (Nexis) 12 Dec. (Features) If the FSA is intent on playing nanny, perhaps it should have warned us about shares in water companies.
B. adj.
That is or acts like a nanny; of, relating to, or characteristic of a nanny or the work of a nanny.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > care, protection, or charge > [adjective] > excessively
mollycoddling1834
overprotecting1847
grandmotherly1873
overprotective1907
nanny1959
nannyish1962
1959 Listener 23 Apr. 735/1 Barristers are handled rather like naughty children by their nanny chief clerks.
1965 B. Sweet-Escott Baker St. Irregular 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.
2000 A. Calcutt Brit Cult 235/1 A one-time CND member..spoke out against Clause 28..and ‘nanny Britain’.
Compounds
C1.
a.
nanny-lore n.
ΚΠ
1959 Listener 2 July 31/2 They can be nursery memories reproducing folk memory: immemorial nanny-lore.
b.
nanny-cultured adj.
ΚΠ
1955 T. H. Pear Eng. Social Differences 273 The effect upon the Nannie-cultured Englishman, of two mothers.
C2.
nanny cam n. originally and chiefly U.S. a (hidden) closed-circuit television camera used to monitor or record the actions of a person providing childcare (also Nanny Cam: a proprietary name in the United States).
ΚΠ
1992 Los Angeles Times 21 June (Westside ed.) j1/4 What Westside toddler's room is truly complete without a Nanny Cam? For a mere $1,200, this teddy bear with a tiny video camera secreted inside will document what really goes on between nanny and her charge.
2000 Brill's Content Aug. 117/1 Also popular are the so-called nanny cams, which allow concerned parents to spy on their day-care providers.
nanny state n. chiefly British the government or its policies viewed as overprotective or as interfering unduly with personal choice; (also) a state characterized as having such a government.
ΚΠ
1952 Snyder (Texas) Daily News 7 July ii. 8/1 Britons are turning Britain itself into a nanny-state, perhaps out of long habit in persuading or coercing natives to do what is good for them.
1965 I. Macleod in Spectator 26 Feb. 255/3 The London County Council is dying, but the spirit of the Nanny State fights on.
1994 Guardian 22 Oct. 40/4 There were concerns voiced about the potential for unscrupulous salesmen to take advantage of the public. These were brushed aside by ministers, convinced that they were symptoms of the ‘nanny state’.
nanny suite n. originally and chiefly Canadian a self-contained apartment within a house (occasionally merely a bedroom with en suite bathroom), designed esp. for the use of a live-in nanny.
ΚΠ
1984 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 6 Oct. h1/4 A guest bedroom or ‘nanny suite’ located over the garage at the front of the house and accessible via a separate staircase.
1995 First Home Buyer's Guide Winter 20/2 The minimum ceiling height in basements was also raised in 1993, a decided advantage when finishing a den, home office, recreation room or nanny suite.
nanny tax n. U.S. a tax levied on those who employ people to do regular work at their home.
ΚΠ
1993 Chicago Sun-Times 10 Feb. 8/2 (heading) Questions on ‘Nanny Tax’ flood IRS.
2000 Business Week (Electronic ed.) 18 Sept. There are..emergency babysitting services, companies specializing in paying nanny taxes, and others that install hidden cameras to spy on babysitters' behavior.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
nannyn.2
/ˈnani/, U.S. /ˈnæni/ 1. A female goat; = nanny-goat n. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > group Ruminantia (sheep, goats, cows, etc.) > subfamily Caprinae (goat) > [noun] > female
nanny-goat1703
nanny1846
1846 G. R. Gibson Jrnl. 23 Aug. (1935) 219 It is strange to see what familiarity the Spanish children take with the goats and sheep, running out to meet them in the evenings as they are driven home, hugging and holding on to the old nannies.
1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer xxviii. 417 He did consider the nanny question and calculated whether a steamer load of those miniature milchers would not pay decently.
1921 Blackwood's Mag. June 764/2 The white Nanny and her kid are Alpino goats, and the brown lot are Toggenburgs.
1997 National Wildlife Aug. 52 (caption) The orneriest mountain goats are not billies, or males, but nannies.
2. slang. to get a person's nanny: to annoy or irritate a person. Cf. to get a person's goat at goat n. and adj. Phrases 4, to get a person's nanny-goat at nanny-goat n. 1b. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > anger > irritation > irritate [verb (transitive)]
gremec893
grillc897
teenOE
mispay?c1225
agrillec1275
oftenec1275
tarya1300
tarc1300
atenec1320
enchafec1374
to-tarc1384
stingc1386
chafe?a1400
pokec1400
irec1420
ertc1440
rehete1447
nettlec1450
bog1546
tickle1548
touch1581
urge1593
aggravate1598
irritate1598
dishumour1600
to wind up1602
to pick at ——1603
outhumour1607
vex1625
bloody1633
efferate1653
rankle1659
spleen1689
splenetize1700
rile1724
roil1742
to put out1796
to touch (also get, catch, etc.) (a person) on the raw1823
roughen1837
acerbate1845
to stroke against the hair, the wrong way (of the hair)1846
nag1849
to rub (a person, etc.) up the wrong way1859
frump1862
rattle1865
to set up any one's bristles1873
urticate1873
needle1874
draw1876
to rough up1877
to stick pins into1879
to get on ——1880
to make (someone) tiredc1883
razoo1890
to get under a person's skin1896
to get a person's goat1905
to be on at1907
to get a person's nanny1909
cag1919
to get a person's nanny-goat1928
cagmag1932
peeve1934
tick-off1934
to get on a person's tits1945
to piss off1946
bug1947
to get up a person's nose1951
tee1955
bum1970
tick1975
1909 N.Y. Evening Jrnl. 8 Dec. 16 Fedink's speed got bunk's nanny something awful.
1914 R. Lardner in Sat. Evening Post 15 Aug. 9/3 ‘Good night, Horseshoes!’ he says. That got my nanny up this time. ‘Shut up, you lucky stiff!’ I says.
1972 J. M. Minifie Homesteader xvii. 143 Take it easy, old boy... Don't let them get your nanny.
3. Horse Racing slang. A totalizator; = nanny-goat n. 3.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > betting > [noun] > book-maker's equipment > totalizator
totec1870
totalizator1879
totalizer1887
totalizing machine1888
machine1891
nanny-goat1961
nanny1967
1967 E. Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1259/1 Nanny, the tote.
1977 A. C. H. Smith Jericho Gun i. 15 Could you get to the Nanny and do it in the dual forecast for me, with the fare?
1988 Times 17 Feb. 44/4 The Tote affectionately known as ‘the Nanny’ gave back to racing £2,510,000 in the last financial year.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
nannyv.
/ˈnani/, U.S. /ˈnæni/ 1. transitive. To look after (someone) in the manner of a nanny; spec. to be unduly protective of.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > care, protection, or charge > care for, protect, or have charge of [verb (transitive)] > excessively
baby1744
mollycoddle1851
wet-nurse1873
overprotectc1885
nursery-maid1899
nursemaid1921
nanny1954
nannify1962
1954 J. Trench Dishonoured Bones ii. 46 Don't nanny me.
1971 J. Osborne West of Suez i. 35 Devoting all his time to Daddy and nannying him like he does.
1974 E. Dewar Dying Business ix. 110 There was no need for you to come nannying me.
1984 S. Steward & S. Garratt Signed Sealed & Delivered iii. 68/2 You had to ‘nanny’ people, you had to make sure everyone was comfortable.
1998 Wired Apr. 185/3 This is a vision of the computer as scold, nannying us through the networked connections in our lives.
2. transitive. To look after or be a nanny to (a child or children).
ΚΠ
1972 J. Gathorne-Hardy Rise & Fall Brit. Nanny iii. 73 Nanny Buckles,..aged seventy, had also Nannied her.
1987 J. Staynes & M. Storey Goodbye, Nanny Gray vii. 87 She had this long correspondence with families she'd nannied donkey's years ago.
2000 Derby Evening Telegraph (Nexis) 6 July 8 If you were born at the Queen Mary Maternity Home..chances are you were brought into the world, nursed or nannied by one of these women.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1adj.1785
n.21846v.1954