ninny
/ˈnɪni
/noun (plural ninnies) informal
A foolish and weak person.Except for a scant few, the characters in St. Elmo's Fire are all either weasels, deceptive clods or selfish ninnies....
- I found them to be almost universally composed of ninnies and power-hungry dorks.
- CBS canceled The Reagans, a four-hour mini-series, after conservative activists and pundits said it made Ronald Reagan out to be a ninny and a bigot.
Origin
Late 16th century: perhaps from innocent.
nincompoop from late 17th century:
The word nincompoop perhaps came from Nicodemus, the name of a Jewish Pharisee in the New Testament who became something of a byword for slow-wittedness. Nicodemus secretly visited Jesus one night to hear about his teachings. Jesus explained, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God’, which puzzled the Pharisee, who took Jesus literally and said ‘How can a man be born when he is old?’. The -poop part of the word may have come from the old verb poop, which meant ‘to deceive or cheat’. In a similar vein ninny (late 16th century) may be a pet form of the name Innocent.