Dictionary

nanny state en · NOUN

Etymology

Of British origin.

Meanings

1. (derogatory) A state whose government institutions are authoritative and over-paternalistic, interfering with and controlling people's lives.
   • Scapegoating an impotent government (running around to clean up the messes made by its business friends) arises from bad faith, from a continuing hostility to the Nanny State that nevertheless goes alongside a refusal to accept the consequences of the sidelining of government in global capitalism […] 2009, Mark Fisher, chapter 8, in Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, Zero Books, →ISBN, page 63:

Forms

Antonyms

night watchman state · minimal state

Deriveds

nanny stater

Translations (10)

cmn 保姆國家 /保姆国家 (over-paternalistic government) · fr gouvernemaman (over-paternalistic government) · pl państwo opiekuńcze (over-paternalistic government) · fr état nounou (over-paternalistic government) · sv förmyndarstat (over-paternalistic government) · it Stato-balia (over-paternalistic government) · de Gouvernantenstaat (over-paternalistic government) · fr état paternaliste (over-paternalistic government) · es estado paternalista (over-paternalistic government) · de Bevormundungsstaat (over-paternalistic government)