willy-nilly
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From will I, nill I (also with ye or he instead of I), meaning “if I am willing, if I am not willing”, that is, “whether I am willing or not”. See will (“to desire, wish”), nill (“(obsolete) to be unwilling”).[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ˌ(ˈ)wɪliˈnɪli/
Audio (GA) (file)
Adverb[edit]
willy-nilly (comparative more willy-nilly, superlative most willy-nilly)
- Whether desired or not; without regard for the consequences or the wishes of those affected; whether willingly or unwillingly.
- Synonyms: (archaic) nilly-willy, nolens volens
- Some writers chasing money churn out novels willy-nilly.
- 1868, [Johann Wolfgang von] Goethe, translated by Arthur Duke Coleridge, Egmont. A Tragedy. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, act II, page 40:
- Whenever I see a long handsome neck, willy nilly, the thought will come uppermost—What a capital neck for carving! Those cursed executions! One can't rid one's mind of them.
- 1869 April 1, A. A. D., “Twelve Scenes in a Young Lady’s Life. No. IV. A Spring Ramble.”, in The Young Englishwoman. A Volume of Pure Literature, New Fashions, and Pretty Needlework Patterns, volume III, London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler, […], →OCLC, stanza 1, page 220, column 1:
- I'll own I'm very glad he's come— / To hide my feelings would be silly— / You see I'm not so shy as some, / My thoughts will come out "willy-nilly."
- 1889, Walter Besant, “A Slight Thing at the Best”, in For Faith and Freedom […], volume II, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 243:
- [I]f you love him not, then you can love me, and, therefore, can come to please yourself, willy-nilly. What! am I to be thwarted in such a trifle? Willy-nilly, I say, I will marry thee. Come—we waste the time.
- 1895 January, Thomas Hardy, “Hearts Insurgent”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume XC, number DXXXVI, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, chapter VIII, page 194, column 2:
- He says he shall come for me willy-nilly, and father and mother say I must have him! But I don't want to—because—because—I love you best!
- 1948 August, Aldous Huxley, “The Script”, in Ape and Essence, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 154:
- And, while he sleeps, the indwelling Compassion preserves him, willy nilly, from the suicide which, in his waking hours, he has tried so frantically hard to commit.
- 1954, Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 36:
- The outer world is what we wake up to every morning of our lives, is the place where, willy-nilly, we must try to make our living.
- (idiomatic) Seemingly at random; haphazardly.
- The novel Alice in Wonderland describes a place where things happen willy-nilly.
Alternative forms[edit]
Translations[edit]
whether desired or not; without regard for consequences or wishes of those affected
seemingly at random — see also haphazardly
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Adjective[edit]
willy-nilly (comparative more willy-nilly, superlative most willy-nilly)
- Whether willing or unwilling.
- Synonym: (archaic) nilly-willy
- 1877, Alfred Tennyson, Harold: A Drama, London: Henry S. King & Co., →OCLC, Act V, scene v, page 129:
- [S]omeone saw thy willy-nilly nun / Vying a tress against our golden fern.
- 1882, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Promise of May”, in Locksley Hall Sixty Years After etc., London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1886, →OCLC, Act II, page 119:
- O my God, if man be only / A willy-nilly current of sensations— / Reaction needs must follow revel—yet— / Why feel remorse, he, knowing that he must have / Moved in the iron grooves of Destiny?
Alternative forms[edit]
Translations[edit]
that happens whether willingly or unwillingly
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References[edit]
- ^ “willy-nilly, adv. and adj.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2015; “willy-nilly, adv.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading[edit]
willy nilly (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - Michael Quinion (created March 1, 2003, last updated November 19, 2011) “Willy-nilly”, in World Wide Words.
