'A-why,' says he, 'I was out a-hunting today, and I got away to a
place in the wood I'd never seen before. And there was an old
chalk-pit. And I heard a kind of a sort of humming. So I got off my
hobby, and I went right quiet to the pit, and I looked down. Well,
what should there be but the funniest little black thing you ever set
eyes on. And what was that doing, but that had a little
spinning-wheel, and that was spinning wonderful fast, and twirling
that's tail. And as that span that sang:Nimmy nimmy not. My name's Tom Tit Tot.'
This content is from "Tom Tit Tot" in English fairy tales.
What's the meaning of "nimmy"?
Best Answer
I suspect that this is a reference to the North of England dialect term 'Nimmy nimmy nack' A simple guessing game: "Nimmy nimmy nack, Which hand will tha tak' ? The rector the left, Or the bonny bord's heft?" - The English dialect dictionary 1898
This is the most likely explanation as, for those that don't know, the story of Tom Tit Tot is pretty much identical to the better known Grimm fairy story of Rumpelstiltskin. The excerpt quoted is from the point where the title character is overheard gloating that the young queen has failed to guess that his name is ...
Answered as community wiki as @Adam has already referenced most of this in comments