What it means
Ninny is a soft old-school jab for someone being daft, fluttery, or a bit wet about something tiny. It usually lands more playful than nasty, the sort of word you toss out when someone's making a harmless fuss or acting like their common sense has gone out for a little walk.
Usage examples
"She felt a proper ninny for screaming at the toy spider her nephew had hidden in the biscuit tin."
"Only a ninny would lend him money again after the last three times he conveniently forgot to pay it back."
"Don’t be such a ninny about the dark, it is the same hallway you walk down twenty times a day."
"I forgot my keys were in my own pocket and spent ten minutes tearing up the flat like a right ninny."
"He's not dangerous, just a bit of a ninny when anything even slightly stressful happens."
Where it comes from
Ninny has been in English since the 1500s as a word for a fool or simpleton. It's commonly linked to innocent, with the meaning drifting from someone innocent or naive into someone seen as silly. An older beefed-up form, ninnyhammer, also shows up in early modern English.
