Nanny

How to spell nanny

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce nanny

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does nanny mean?

1. nounA person, usually a woman, employed to care for a family's children in the home.
2. nounA female goat, paired with the male billy goat.

Nanny in a sentence

• The working parents hired a live-in nanny to mind their toddler.

• The nanny on the smallholding gave plenty of milk each morning.

• A qualified nanny should hold a first-aid certificate.

• The farmer kept one billy and three nanny goats in the paddock.

Where does nanny come from?

Language of origin: Other

Nanny grew out of Nan, a familiar pet form of the woman's name Ann or Anne that was common from the 1600s onward; the doubled consonant and the cosy -y ending reflect that affectionate, nursery origin. As a baby-talk and household word it came to mean a children's nurse around the end of the 1700s, since such a carer was often addressed by a simple familiar name. The same root lies behind 'nana' and 'nan' as fond words for a grandmother, which is why the spelling keeps that homely doubling. From the early 1800s the word was also applied to a female goat (the nanny goat), pairing with the male 'billy goat', again from a friendly personal name used for an animal. The trap for spellers is simply remembering the double n in the middle, mirroring the original name Nan.

How the word is built

• nan (pet form of the name Ann/Anne, also a child's babbling word)
• -y (diminutive/familiar suffix)