ninnery

English

Etymology

From ninny +‎ -ery.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈnɪnəɹi/

Noun

ninnery (countable and uncountable, plural ninneries)

  1. (uncommon) Ninnyish behavior; foolery; foolishness.
    • 1888, Charles M. Doughty, “Life in the Wandering Village” (chapter IX), in Travels in Arabia Deserta, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, page 263:
      Those loose “Arabian tales” of the great border-cities, were but profane ninnery to their stern natural judgments.
    • 1984 [1982], H. A. Williams, Someday I'll Find You, Mitchell Beazley, →ISBN, page 90:
      I wasn't surprised to find him virulently anti-clerical, and was rather pleased when he told me that he thought that “all theology was sophisticated ninnery”.
    • 2004, Peter Parker, Isherwood: A Life Revealed, Random House, →ISBN, page 130:
      She tries to emotionalise her relation with Lily, but Lily isn’t having any. The discovery that Lily, behind all her romantic ninnery, is hard as bricks.
    • Summer 2014, Mia Couto, “War of the Clowns”, in Eric M. B. Becker, transl., The Massachusetts Review, volume 55, number 2, page 246:
      Who could take them seriously? Ridiculous, the two comedians reparteed. The arguments were common nonsense, the theme was a ninnery. And an entire day passed.
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