Etymology

wendy

wen·dy
W4E1N1D2Y4

Today it means: A wuss; someone who is particularly cowardly. Full definition →

Old English wende
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromwende“watercourse with a bend”
  2. English todayWendy

Popularized by the character in J. M. Barrie's play, Peter Pan (1904), though occasionally found earlier; the author explained that he got it from Fwendy-Wendy ("friend"), a nickname given to him by a child. Alternatively, from a diminutive of the Welsh Gwendolen; or from Wendelin, a diminutive of Wendel; therefore a doublet of Gwen. A habitational forename meaning, "island at the river bend", from Old English wende (“watercourse with a bend”) + ēġ (“island”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.