namby-pamby

From the nickname of the poet Ambrose Phillips, coined by Henry Carey in 1726. [1]

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namby-pamby (comparative more namby-pamby or namby-pambier, superlative most namby-pamby or namby-pambiest)

1. Insipid and sentimental.
2. Lacking vigor or decisiveness; spineless; wishy-washy.

namby-pamby (plural namby-pambies)

1. One who is insipid, sentimental, or weak.
   • 1725, Capt. Gordon [Henry Carey], Namby-Pamby: Or a Pangyric on the New Versification Addressed to A-- P-- Esq., OCLC 49006177:

     Namby Pamby’s doubly Mild, / Once a Man, and twice a Child; / To his Hanging-Sleeves restor’d / Now he foots it like a Lord; / Now he Pumps his little Wits; / Sh--ing Writes and Writing Sh--s,^[sic]

2. Talk or writing which is weakly sentimental or affectedly pretty.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Macaulay to this entry?)

namby-pamby (third-person singular simple present namby-pambies, present participle namby-pambying, simple past and past participle namby-pambied)

1. To coddle.
   • 2012, Alan Tyers, Who Moved My Stilton?: The Victorian Guide to Getting Ahead in Business

     While we business men of Britain have little time for this sort of namby-pambying towards the next generation, who are often feckless, tearful, small, dirty or all of the above, there is no doubt that youths have their place in commerce.