Nervous Nellie: a foolishly timid or overly fussy person
Sometimes spelled without caps, the term originally referred to Frank B. Kellogg, Minnesota senator from 1917 to 1922 and Secretary of State from 1925 to 1929. One of the earliest uses in print comes from the New York Herald Tribune for January 11, 1925: "[Kellogg] was labeled 'Nervous Nellie' by those who were irritated at his maneuvering during the League of Nations fight." Kellogg is best known for his sponsorship of the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, signed by 63 nations, an agreement to renounce the use of war as "an instrument of national policy." He received the 1929 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of this effort. A quotation from Michael Blankfort's The Big Yankee, referring to events in Nicaragua taking place around the same time, shows that the nickname was in general use: "It was all 'Nervous Nellie's' fault. That damned Kellogg! He let the damned pacifists and anti-imperialist Wobblies, Bolshies and Do-Goodies talk him out of [taking military action]." When Kellogg was first being called Nervous Nellie, nelly was slang for an effeminate man, so Nervous Nellie would have carried the suggestion of sissiness.
Nervous Nellie has remained popular as a general term for an overly timid person. It is often still used to label those who are reluctant to engage in war. In a statement quoted in Time for May 27, 1966, President Lyndon Johnson said, referring to the escalating Vietnam War: "The road ahead is going to be difficult. There will be some Nervous Nellies . . ." President George W. Bush made a similar remark in 2002, referred to in the September 15 New York Times: "'there's a lot of nervous Nellies at the Pentagon' when it comes to taking military action."