nanny

¹

[ nan-ee ]

noun

, plural nan·nies.

1. a person, usually with special training, employed to care for children in a household.

Nanny

²

[ nan-ee ]

noun

1. a female given name.

nanny

/ ˈnænɪ /

noun

1. a nurse or nursemaid for children
2. 1. any person or thing regarded as treating people like children, esp by being patronizing or overprotective
   2. ( as modifier )

      the nanny state

3. a child's word for grandmother

verb

1. intr to nurse or look after someone else's children
2. tr to be overprotective towards

Word History and Origins

Origin of nanny¹

1785–95; nursery word; compare Welsh nain grandmother, Greek nánna aunt, Russian nyánya nursemaid

Word History and Origins

Origin of nanny¹

C19: child's name for a nurse

Example Sentences

“It was made by my nanny in the ’80s.

From Los Angeles Times

It appears that she found work as a nanny with a wealthy family in a big house in the suburbs of New York but lost the job as the US sank into depression after the Wall Street Crash.

From BBC

He described the relative heights of all the people in his life who he’s taller than, including Munn, his even shorter mother-in-law and a nanny who is “negative one-feet tall.”

From Los Angeles Times

This is, frankly, an ominous promise: Among the stories about RFK Jr. and women that circulated during the campaign were decade-old reports about diaries in which he recorded having cheated on his then-wife 37 times in one year, present-day accusations that he helped break up the engagement of a journalist who covered him by “sexting” with her, and a Vanity Fair piece in which a woman who worked for him as a nanny said he had repeatedly harassed and touched her sexually without her consent.

From Slate

“I am not the kind of woman who would hand my baby over to a nanny, not in a million years. So we would be dragging a baby around the world on tour,” Nicks said.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• au pair
• governess