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Where did it originate??
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Apparently in early English Nil meant the opposite of will.
So where as will was wanting to do something, nil was not wanting to, so willy nilly meant not knowing one way or the other or haphazard x |
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By *Ryan-Man
over a year ago
In Your Bush |
I am so glad you asked  Although we more commonly use it nowadays to mean ‘haphazardly’, the origin centres around the first meaning. The early meaning of the word ‘nill’ was the opposite of ‘will’, as in ‘wanting to do something’. In other words, ‘nill’ meant ‘wanting to avoid doing something’. So, combining the two words – I am willing, I am unwilling – expresses the idea that it doesn’t matter to me one way or the other! |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Willy-nilly is actually a varition of "will he--nil he," which originally meant (and sometimes still means) regardless of whether or not a person consents to something. Now it is also used to mean something like "without control and heedless of the consequences."
Silly-willy is an example of "reduplication." The last three sounds in "silly" are repeated as a way of emphasizing the silliness and creating a sillier-sounding word. Something that's silly-willy is even sillier than something that's merely silly.
We have other examples of reduplication in words like fuzzy-wuzzy, artsy-fartsy, and bling-bling. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"I like willy nilly too, he's a great bloke  "
Just that other bloke, Bill Stickers. Why anyone should be so intent on prosecuting him all the time (Bill Stickers will be prosecuted) is beyond me..... ???
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By *icky55Man
over a year ago
Warm an cosy cave. Brist |
"Apparently in early English Nil meant the opposite of will.
So where as will was wanting to do something, nil was not wanting to, so willy nilly meant not knowing one way or the other or haphazard x "
Now I'm confused.  |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"How sensible you all are today ,
well most "
Why thank you.... And just to give it my twopennyworth seriously for a mo, another possible meaning/usage for Willy Nilly is not being able to make ones mind up, or lacking direction....
Think it's one of those which has got lost in the midst's of time....
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Slightly off thread (but I'm going to say it anyway cos I'm a silly billy), if Henry the Eighth had said "hallowed be thy name" as part of the lords prayer, it would have come out as "hallod be tha nom". I saw it on a tv prog years ago and always remembered it as it said we wouldn't have been able to understand the Tudors talk and speech. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Slightly off thread (but I'm going to say it anyway cos I'm a silly billy), if Henry the Eighth had said "hallowed be thy name" as part of the lords prayer, it would have come out as "hallod be tha nom". I saw it on a tv prog years ago and always remembered it as it said we wouldn't have been able to understand the Tudors talk and speech. "
slight beist thus an understatementus. |
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By *icky55Man
over a year ago
Warm an cosy cave. Brist |
Think it's a local abreviation/slange like the cockneys use in london, things like dingle dangle, jingle jangle, itsy bitsy, teeny weeny used in the states.
It's just a play on words, but words like blige go bay a long way and tend to stay and be used in areas of briton. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Slightly off thread (but I'm going to say it anyway cos I'm a silly billy), if Henry the Eighth had said "hallowed be thy name" as part of the lords prayer, it would have come out as "hallod be tha nom". I saw it on a tv prog years ago and always remembered it as it said we wouldn't have been able to understand the Tudors talk and speech.
slight beist thus an understatementus."
There you go with the latin again  |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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"Nill = Null = wont
Will = will = will
Willy Nilly ..... I will I won't we will we wont .... dizzy see.....
Willy Nilly all over the place. Changing your mind ........yes no yes no yes no yes no "
Thankyou Granny very clear definition |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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"I prefer the phrase Free Willy 
you would 
Willy needs to breathe every now and then you know"
Yes I've seen it happen... Spurts everywhere from that hole near the head |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"I prefer the phrase Free Willy
you would
Willy needs to breathe every now and then you know
Yes I've seen it happen... Spurts everywhere from that hole near the head"
That is a sneeze not a breath you have left the door open and he got a head cold |
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