Negative Nancy
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: Negative Nancies
form: Negative Nancys
Senses: examples: text: Do you hate bad grammar? Do you hate it most of all when it’s used by some Negative Nancy in the comments section of your favorite Web site?
ref: 2009 July 27, Macy Halford, “Whacked Out”, in The New Yorker, New York, N.Y.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2021:
text: Various Negative Nancys spent Thursday puzzling over what ABC News was thinking by hiring someone outside the box, with little knowledge of domestic politics, to anchor "This Week."
ref: 2010 March 19, Lisa de Moraes, “Off the road, but onto the Beltway, as [Christiane] Amanpour takes over ABC’s ’This Week’”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2025:
text: Why should anyone have to pay out of their own pockets to take a vacation? Oh, the humanity. Sure, there are some Negative Nancies out there. Predictably, from the doomsayers over at Fox News. “That is what happens when government looks after you,” Neil Cavuto writes. “It looks after ‘all’ of you and ‘all’ you do. Your ‘stimulus’ and now your ‘suitcase.’
ref: 2010 April 21, Jimmy Orr, “Opinion: No free vacation this year? Your human rights may have been violated (at least in Europe)”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Jun 2022:
text: Sixty percent of today's workers do not expect to be paid a benefit -⁠- that's a benefit -⁠- from Social Security after they retire. Whoa there, Negative Nancies. The program is projected to pay out 100% of benefits until the mid-2030s. After that, the program isn't broken or busted. Instead it will be able to pay about 75% of inflation-adjusted benefits.
ref: 2010 July 20, Derek Thompson, “6 in 10 Workers Don't Think They'll Ever Get Social Security”, in James Bennet, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2010:
text: “I was very excited to hear people talk to me about ‘[American] Idol’ a lot and say that this year kind of reinvigorated their interest,” he said. “It’s not the Negative Nancy thing anymore, you know: ‘It’s on the way out, it’s no good, I don’t like the judges.’ This season it seems like: ‘I like the judges, I like the contestants, nobody’s clamoring for airtime.’ I think there’s a unilateral focus on the show and really trying to create a star in this business.”
ref: 2014 March 7, Lyndsey Parker, “Silver Bulletpoints: 11 Things We Just Learned From Taylor Hicks”, in Rolling Stone, New York, N.Y.: Penske Media Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2023:
text: All this said, there is a big bright spot for every Negative Nancy out there: by simply changing your perspective, you may just improve your health.
ref: 2015 July 8, Adam Hoffman, “Can Negative Thinking Make You Sick?”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Jul 2015:
text: [Julia] Bosson, who works with patients on mindful parenting, and is helping her office, Union Square Practice, launch a reproductive mental health wing, has a few tangible, take-home ideas to combat those ugly Negative Nancies in your head and accept that your less-than-perfect parenting is just fine.
ref: 2017 May 17, Lindsey M. Roberts, “6 ways to fight perfectionism in a Pinterest Mom world”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 May 2017:
text: Dylan Woon thinks people who are "full of negativity" are the most boring. He breaks down the Negative Nancies into three categories: Victim mentality: "I'm trapped! [Why] am I so unlucky? Why me? Why?"
ref: 2017 July 30, Shana Lebowitz, “15 habits of extremely boring people”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 02 Aug 2017:
text: When I hear that something is the worst ever, I reflexively want to test the source’s credibility. One way to distinguish the Negative Nancies from the more objective observers is to ask them when said thing was the best ever.
ref: 2018 March 6, Ken Pomeroy, “KenPom: Best and worst bubble years, using NCAA tourney lock Houston [Cougars] for perspective”, in The Athletic, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2025:
text: If you’re not thinking big anymore, you might be just a defeatist. Or a Negative Nancy.
ref: 2025 May 16, Stefan Bondy, “It’s time to starting dreaming about the impossible with these [New York] Knicks”, in New York Post, New York, N.Y.: News Corp, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 May 2025:
glosses: Alternative letter-case form of negative Nancy.