Needy means very poor, or wanting far too much attention. The needy, a needy child, don't be so needy.
The two senses have parted company: the needy as a group means people in poverty and belongs to charity language, while calling a person needy is an insult about emotional demands. That second use has grown fast and has largely taken the word over.
1adjectivepoorVery poor.
“The charity provides warm meals for needy families during the winter.”
2adjectiveneedyWanting far too much attention.
“Her new boyfriend is so needy; he texts her every ten minutes.”
needy is a quality of want.
Old English niedig comes from nied, need or necessity.
Proto-Germanic
*naudigaz — of need, forced, compelled
Old English
nēdiġ
Middle English
nedy
English, today
needy
Built from
From Middle English nedy, nedi (“necessitous”), from Old English nēdiġ, nīediġ "of need, obligated, compelled"; found in the derivative nīediġnes (“obligation”), from Proto-Germanic naudigaz (“of need, forced, compelled”), equivalent to need + y. Cognate with Scots nedy, neidy (“needy, necessitous, impoverished”), stq niedich (“miserable, poor, wretched, needy”), stq nöödich (“necessary, needful”), West Frisian nedich (“needful, needed”), Dutch nodig (“necessary”), Middle Low German nōdich (“necessary, urgent, by requirement”), German nötig (“necessary, needful”), Danish nødig (“necessary”), Swedish nödig (“necessary”), Icelandic nauðugur (“constrained”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA