| 释义 |
namby-pamby, a. and n.|ˈnæmbɪˈpæmbɪ|
[A fanciful formation on the name of Ambrose Philips (died 1749), author of pastorals ridiculed by Carey and Pope.
1726Carey (title) Namby Pamby. Ibid. 29 So the Nurses get by Heart Namby Pamby's Little Rhimes. 1733Pope Dunc. iii. 319 Beneath his reign shall..Namby Pamby [ed. 1, A—e P—s] be prefer'd for Wit. ]
A. adj.
1. Of style, compositions, actions, etc.: Weakly sentimental, insipidly pretty, affectedly or childishly simple.
1745W. Ayre Mem. Pope II. 90 He us'd to write Verses on Infants, in a strange Stile, which Dean Swift calls the Namby Pamby Stile. 1791Boswell Johnson I. 97 At a very advanced age he condescended to trifle in namby pamby rhymes. 1793W. Roberts Looker-on No. 84 (1794) III. 351 Sweet smirking troops, In coats of green, and namby pamby pride. 1823Edin. Rev. XXXIX. 73 Too many of these namby-pamby lyrics have still been allowed to remain. 1844Thackeray Little Trav. i. Wks. 1869 XXII. 181 Keyser has dwindled down into namby-pamby prettiness. 1882M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal III. x. 191 He had just that small namby-pamby air which would suit Pauline's faint-hearted lover.
absol.1874L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) II. ii. 64 That unlucky taste for the namby-pamby by which Wordsworth annoyed his contemporaries.
2. Of persons: Inclined to weak sentimentality, affected daintiness, or childish simplicity; of a weak or trifling character.
1774Westm. Mag. II. 145 A namby-pamby Duke. 1774T. Davies in J. Granger's Lett. (1805) 60 Certain namby⁓pamby people were never to be satisfied. 1840Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1869) 47 The namby-pamby mystical German school [of painters]. 1848― Van. Fair xlii, She was a namby-pamby milk-and-water affected creature. 1883Fortn. Rev. 1 Sept. 384 An amount of curious facts which namby⁓pamby travellers hesitate to tell.
B. n.
1. That which is marked by affected prettiness and feeble sentimentality; a composition of this kind.
a1764Lloyd Cobbler of Cripplegate, While namby-pamby thus you scribble. 1801in Spirit Pub. Jrnls. V. 284 An ode which he has just composed in praise of Inanity, or Namby Pamby. 1814T. L. Peacock Wks. (1875) III. 129 Mr. W. R. Spenser, a writer of fantastical namby-pambies. 1838Macaulay Sir W. Temple Ess. (ed. Montague) II. 260 Passages in which raillery and tenderness are mixed in a very engaging namby-pamby. 1894Sala Things I have seen II. xiv. 135 The words in the songs..were not always sickly namby-pamby.
2. A namby-pamby person.
1885Athenæum 17 Oct. 498/1 He is excellent..on Haydon passim; about the namby-pambies of the time he writes as becomes the author of the ‘Book of Snobs’.
Hence ˈnamby-ˈpambical a., of a namby-pamby nature; ˈnamby-ˈpambics, namby-pamby writing; ˈnamby-ˈpambiness, weak sentimentality; ˈnamby-ˈpamby v., to talk namby-pamby to (one); ˈnamby-ˈpambyish a., somewhat namby-pamby.
1757E. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances (1767) III. 130, I had never written Namby Pambicks in my Life. 1761Wesley Wks. (1872) XII. 122 Omit one or two [hymns]... They are namby-pambycal. 1809–12M. Edgeworth Absentee xvi, A lady of quality..sends me..her waiting gentlewoman to namby-pamby me. 1832Examiner 517/1 The words..are namby-pambyish. 1890Saintsbury Hist. Elizab. Lit. iv. 138 The sweetness without namby⁓pambyness which Daniel had at constant command. |