Negative Nancies and other related musings

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Mar 20, 2010, at 12:03 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>
> Negative Nancies made the WaPo today...

> ... I've never heard "Negative Nellie" but it's widely attested. On
> the
> other hand "Nos(e)y Nellie" is quite common.
>
> Another expression that belongs to the same category is "Grumpy
> Gus"...

a further alliterative generic name is Silent Sam.  and the
orthographically, but not phonologically, alliterative Chatty Cathy
(the name of a Mattel "talking doll" from the 1960s), applied to a
talkative person, especially a woman.

arnold

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