English▸ adjective lacking energy, strength, or courage; feeble or effeminate in behavior or expression:
these weren't namby-pamby fights, but brutal affairs where heads hit the sidewalk.
▸ noun
(plural namby-pambies)
a feeble or effeminate person: he was a good boy, a namby-pamby, who kept the place assigned to him.
– ORIGIN mid 18th century : fanciful formation based on the given name of Ambrose Philips (died 1749), an English writer whose pastorals were ridiculed by Pope and others.