In two separate recent threads:

quote:

nancy boy: a slightly dated insult calling someone effeminate or homosexual.
namby-pamby: the British usage would be more akin to weak, half-hearted or ineffectual.

Careful distinctions: What sort of thing could be called one but not the other, or the other but not the one?

I suppose if you weren't sure you were a nancy boy you'd be namby-pamby.

quote:

nancy boy: a slightly dated insult calling someone effeminate or homosexual.

Being a Nancy in real life, I object! To whom can I write a mean letter?

"Nancy" comes from the Hebrew name "Ann," which means "grace." Apparently "Nancy" was a nickname until the 18th century. I couldn't believe the dearth of famous Nancys on that site: Nancy Reagan, Nancy Kerrigan, and Nancy Mitford.

The online OED says that nancy boy was first used in 1927. They called it a synonym of "fairy" and "poof." Poof??? Then they mentioned "Toto fellow???"

There's a whole town in France called Nancy! Ain't no Jessicas or Buffys!

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:

quote:

nancy boy: a slightly dated insult calling someone effeminate or homosexual.

Being a Nancy in real life, I object! To whom can I write a mean letter?

"Nancy" comes from the Hebrew name "Ann," which means "grace." Apparently "Nancy" was a nickname until the 18th century. I couldn't believe the dearth of famous Nancys on that site: Nancy Reagan, Nancy Kerrigan, and Nancy Mitford.

The online OED says that nancy boy was first used in 1927. They called it a synonym of "fairy" and "poof." Poof??? Then they mentioned "Toto fellow???"

Poof is another common offensive term for male homosexual over here, maybe the commonest. It's still in current use. I never heard the term "toto fellow".

Have other Americans heard of "poof?" What is the origin of that?

Just to confuse things further, here in the NE of England it's "puff"! As in "Yu caalin me a puff?"!

I first heard poof back in the early '70s: Monty Python's Flying Circus when it was first run on PBS in the States. There's also an augmented form, pooftah (sp?).

quote:

"poof?" What is the origin of that?
here in the NE of England it's "puff"!

OED says that 'poof' probably is is a corrupted form of 'puff'. This would imply that 'puff' in this sense predates 'poof'. The difficulty is that it does not appear until almost half a century after.

quote:

There's also an augmented form, pooftah (sp?).

I have seen it spelt like that, but probably the more common spelling is poofter.

"Nancy boy" is used in Harry Potter. The first book, Uncle Vernon Dursley said he didn't want his "ickle Dudders" to be a "nancy boy".


I didn't realize panbies were "nanby". I always thought it was mamby.

quote:

Originally posted by Erik Johansen:
Just to confuse things further, here in the NE of England it's "puff"! As in "Yu caalin me a puff?"!

But don't you pronounce it in exactly the same way?

Anyway, my favourite euphemism for this came up recently when an aquaintance was asked whether he had a wife. He replied, "No, No, No. I bat for the other side."

I first became aware of "poofter" while listening to a CD of The Cories, a Scottish group, singing their great takeoff on "Ghost Riders in the Sky," "The Portree Kid," the last line of whose refrain sounds like "The pooftah, 'e came fra' Skye."
A friend from the UK had to translate that for us.

"Nancy Boy" I think I've seen in British novels, but can't cite any examples. Maugham? Forster? I always take that one to mean "homosexual."

Another term that seems outdated, but that I've heard in the states, is "pantywaist." I think this one can mean either just effeminate or homosexual.

Then, there's "light in the loafers." Don't know where that one comes from.

I've seen "pantywaist" in American books, but it's not used over here. I, too get the impression it's outdated slang; an author like Mark Twain might have used the expression. I hasten to add I don't recall him ever having used it, though.

I've never heard of "light in the loafers".

The few times I've heard "panty-waist" in the wild, it was an intentional archaism. Pretty much like nancy boy and namby-pamby.

"Nancy boy" was still going strong here until around the 1950s or 1960s. "Namby-pamby" still in (irregular) use. There's not really a satisfactory alternative for the phrase, particularly if you don't particularly want to insinuate homosexuality. Remember, women can be namby-pamby, too!

"Namby-pamby" is equivalent to "wishy-washy" in my understanding. Passive, Milquetoast-ish. Could also be light in the loafers, but more likely just totally without spine.

I didn't mean to imply that all three were synonymous, but that they were all equally archaic or old-fashioned.

quote:

Originally posted by zmjezhd:
I didn't mean to imply that all three were synonymous, but that they were all equally archaic or old-fashioned.

Agreed. The only time I ever heard anybody use the term "pantywaist" in actual conversation was when a grumpy older man in my neighborhood referred to one of the neighborhood kids, a boy who cried easily, as "a kind of a pantywaist." I had to go home and look it up.

Looking back at this thread, I expect 'toto fellow' comes from the same place as 'friend of Dorothy'.