Willy Nilly

[CuriousaboutSamphire]

Just saw this phrase on another post and it reminded me of a surreal facebook exchange!

Me: Lost my diary, so just doing the jobs I remember willy nilly
Facebook Friend: Willy Nilly? That's a bit of a loaded term!
Me: Huh?
FF: Willy Nilly... like it's a shit way to do things because it's how a many would do it
Me: that's not what it means. It's a very old saying, means uncertain.
FF: It doesn't seem to mean that. It seems to mean that a job done badly is done by a man
Me: www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/willy-nilly.html
FF: Oh you can always find something in the internet to prove you right!
Me: I'm out!
FF: Yeah, that's right, run away!

I haven't spoken to FF friend since. Wonder why?

Sorry, I know this is pfaffy maundering... I am in work avoidance mode!

That's hilarious

That’s a nice phrase I haven’t heard in ages. Maybe your old FF hasn’t been taught.

It is important to keep reminding new generations of old words and phrases, even if they do keep thinking of new ones.

True! He is a youngy'un!

Whaaa?
Willy nilly means like, in no particular order, or just ad-hoc whatever, in a whatever way right?
This exchange must be with a very young person I'm assuming. Leave them!

Yup! And I have had zero contact since that exchange.

He's a young business man, I don't have to network with him, thank goodness!

Try him with the following - 'I am taking something of a scattergun approach to clearing my email backlog' and see what he comes back with.

In Tom Brown's schooldays this is written as "Will he, nil he", which I always assumed was the origin of the phrase, though I'm not sure it makes much sense.

He seems a little obsessed with his penis. I bet he thinks spotted dick is a derogatory reference to male genitals as well. Nobody cares about what’s inside your pants, love.

Seriously though, isnit something to do with the word will as in what you intending to do, and willy nilly is like a negation of that, so it’s stuff that happens outside of your control. I don’t know, I’ve just always been interested in where words come from and that seems more logical.

Yep will he nill he: will he, won't he... the very picture of indecision.

Scattergun! If I ever have to respond to him again I will be sure to be as archaic and feminist as I can

Goodness knows what he thinks of 'Free Willy'.
Twit who can't take being corrected.

What a twit. An uninformed and ignorant twit. He needs to do more reading of actual books, classics preferably, and expand his vocabulary without using the internet.

Willy can only ever mean penis.

Because PENIS!!!!!!!!

FFS. He needs to learn a little about language and the way words evolve.
As the OP's link says, it's a variation on "will I, nil I", the 'nil' being the Latin negation of 'will'. Hence 'haphazard', 'undecided' etc.

"Willy" as a term for a penis is a latecomer - the dictionary says it could be a variation of virile, but it's more likely to be just a pet name, much like fanny.

Language, for me, is fascinating. I feel quite sorry for that young man, so centred on his own willy, and missing out on so much.

What an idiot. GrumpyGran8, Cassell's Dictionary of Slang agrees with you that "willy" is a modern term; it cites 20th Northern but is now in non-dialect usage.

Strangely, neither "willy-nilly" and "will he, nil he" appear in this dictionary, but I did spot a number of other entries for "willy/willie", definitions include "a male homosexual" "money or wallet" (1940s Australian), and "the willies" (19C) meaning nerves, worries, etc.

So yon fella needs to read some books, yes. Vocabulary knowledge does seem to be on the decline generally and all this mucking about with shifting meanings is not helping.

"Willy nilly" - spontaneous, without order, haphazard.

Is it my imagination, or do some people really seem to be trying hard to be offended by anything they do not understand?

I remember years ago, when my (Iranian born) wife came back from work, and told me how her (English born) Indian friend who had just brought her newly born daughter into work, was genuinely horrified when my wife asked her - "Have you wet the baby's head yet?"
She went off on one, saying what a horrible thing that was to inflict on a baby