different between ninny vs rattlebrain

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?ni/
• Rhymes: -?ni

Noun

ninny (plural ninnies)

1. (informal) A silly or foolish person.

   Synonym: dummkopf

   • c. 1610-11, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act III scene ii^[2]:

     Caliban: What a pied ninny's this! Thou scurvy patch! […]

   • 1962, John D. MacDonald

     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.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:idiot

Related terms

• nincompoop
• ninnyish
• ninnyism
• ninnyhammer

Translations

English

Etymology

rattle +? brain

Noun

rattlebrain (plural rattlebrains)

1. A rattlebrained person.
   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 13, [1]

     a genial young fellow enough to look at, and something of a rattlebrain, to all appearance.

   • 1962, Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Slave, translated by Isaac Bachevis Singer and Cecil Hemley, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1985, Part III, p. 297,

     My mother, peace be with her, when she called me a rattlebrain, was right.