Ninny vs Idiot - What's the difference?
ninny | idiot | Related terms |
a silly or foolish person
* {{quote-book
, year=1607
, author=John Marston
, title=What you will
, chapter=Act 5, Scene 1
''Sim. Not I by this garter, I am a foole, a very Ninny I, how call you her? how call you her? }}* "Ninny — that soft, smiling, self-effacing, apologetic fellow, the type who is terribly sorry when you happen to step on his foot, the kind you can borrow money from in the certainty he will never demand you repay it." — (1962)
(pejorative) A person of low general intelligence.
(obsolete, medicine, psychology) A person who lacks the capacity to develop beyond the mental age of a normal four-year-old.
Ninny is a related term of idiot.
As nouns the difference between ninny and idiot
is that ninny is a silly or foolish person while idiot is (slang|derogatory) a proponent of intelligent design.ninny
English
Noun
(ninnies)citation, page=three of sheet G3 , passage=Byd.'' ...a good cheeke, an inticing eye, a smooth skinne, a well shapt leg, a faire hand, you cannot bring a wench into a fooles parradize for you?
''Sim. Not I by this garter, I am a foole, a very Ninny I, how call you her? how call you her? }}
idiot
English
Alternative forms
* eejit * idjit, idget (eye dialect)Noun
(en noun)- usage note This may be used pejoratively, as an insult. It is a weak insult, however, and between close friends, family members, or lovers, is often completely nonaggressive.