Mollycoddle-an underused and under appreciated word

Mollycoddle.

It is an easy sprint for the tongue. It has soft consonants and not too many for the number of syllables. It is just a nice four syllable word with a bit of chew to it. It isn’t a widely used word these days and when you do hear it, they don’t use it in it’s original function. Most people associate it with the word coddle which is a verb meaning to spoil if it is a child or cook softly if it is an egg. Since coddle is a verb, the assume that mollycoddle is a verb also. They are wrong. Mollycoddle was originally a noun even though, as often happens in English it later became a verb also.

Use it!

It means ‘ a pampered or effeminate man or boy,’ You can use it anytime you might say sissy or weakling. This is completely dedicated to the male sex. No equal opportunity here but I doubt the ladies are offended by the exclusion. A man who is unable to stand up for himself is a mollycoddle. You might also use it instead of ‘mama’s boy’ because any mama’s boy was probably mollycoddled by his mama. Quite literally it means coddled by Molly (a common English feminine name).

Real English

There is no high-faluting pretension with this word. No fancy Greek or Latin derivatives here, just good plain English. Some people quibble that coddle might be derived from a Latin word for a hot drink but I’m not buying it. The English language is definitely a mongrel, picking up flotsam and jetsam as it careens around the world but there are still words that stand up as honest real English and I’m putting Mollycoddle in that class.

Your mission!

So today I am asking you to rescue this honest English word from near oblivion. Stop using the similar meaning sissy with it’s Latin roots for the good old English term mollycoddle. You can even use it as a verb if you must. If you are real men, and real women for that matter, you need to be calling spades , spades. Get out there and make mollycoddle the popular word that it was destined to be. If you don’t then expect me to call you what you are – mollycoddles – at least the men. I don’t know what to call you ladies.