Other forms: nannies
A nanny is somebody paid to look after children in the family's own home. A live-in nanny, the nanny picks them up at three.
It differs from a childminder, who looks after children at their own house, and from an au pair, who is younger, foreign and paid less in exchange for board. In British English Nanny is also an affectionate name for a grandmother, which the same word does for many families. Note nanny goat, meaning a female goat, and nanny state, which is a political criticism meaning a government that interferes too much in how people live.
1nounnannySomebody paid to look after children in their home.
“The nanny has been with them since the twins were born.”
2nounfamilyIn British family use, a grandmother.
“We are going to Nanny's on Sunday.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
nanny is a carer.
Nanny is a child's word, from the same nursery-language layer as mama and papa, and it is used across Europe for both a grandmother and a carer. The goat sense came from using a familiar name for the animal, exactly as billy goat did.
Proto-Celtic
*nana — grandmother
English, today
nanny
Built from
From nan + -y. The root is from nana (“grandma; nanny”), which is from nanna (“grandmother”), which is possibly derived from Proto-Celtic nana (“grandmother”). See also cel-bry-pro, Welsh nain (“grandmother”), Galician nana (“mama”), Spanish nana (“granny; nanny; mommy; housekeeper”), Sicilian nanna (“grandma”), Italian nonna (“granny”), nonna, Norman nonne (“nun”), nonain. All probably ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European - root imitative of the sound of a child babbling, similar to Ancient Greek νάννα. (1795) It has often been assumed that the English term was originally a widespread imitative of the sound for "female adult other than mother" (compare Greek νάννα (“aunt”), nanna). On the other hand, according to recent research of the Dutch historical linguists Hans Beelen and Nicoline van der Sijs (published in [https://web.archive.org/web/20201021112011/https://onzetaal.nl/tijdschrift/digitale-onze-taal/editie/september-2018/1809-woordsprong-nanny/ Onze Taal], September 2018), on which see also [http://www.etymologiebank.nl/trefwoord/nanny etymologiebank.nl], in Dutch), the term nanny (and the British colloquial nan for "grandmother") may actually be eponymous, viz. being originally an affective form (i.e. a hypocoristic) of the popular female name Anne. The Dutch statesman and scientist Constantijn Huygens Jr. made the following observation during one of his many sojourns in England (noted in his Journaal, dated 13 December 1692): "Yesterday I received 10lb of chocolate again, from niece Becker, and she had Nanny, her maid, bringing me the money that she had owed me" ([https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/huyg007jour03_01/huyg007jour03_01_0012.php Gisteren kreegh 10 ℔ choccolate wederom van nicht Becker, en had Nanny, haer meidt, geweest om mij 't geldt, dat van haer hebben most, te brengen]). Beelen and van der Sijs therefore assumed that "since many female domestic servants were named "Nan" or "Nanny", the name became a sobriquet for the profession of "maid, childminder" in the 18th century". ("Omdat veel vrouwelijke huisbedienden in het Engels de voornaam Nan of Nanny hadden, verschoof de betekenis in de achttiende eeuw naar die van een beroepsaanduiding: ‘meid, kindermeisje’")
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA