Willy-nilly (idiom)

For other uses, see Willy nilly (disambiguation).

An 18th century artwork by William Hogarth featuring a disorderly setting.

Willy-nilly is an English-language idiom and a slang which describes an activity, an action or event that is done in a disorganized, unplanned, or vacillating manner.[1][2][3] The term is derived from Shakespearian expression "will ye, nill ye", which is a contraction that means “whether one wants to or not.”[4]

It has a very similar meaning to other reduplicates, that also pertain to 'disorderly' and 'disorganized', such as pell-mell,[5] helter-skelter,[6] hurry-scurry[7] and higgledy-piggledy,[8][a] all originating in the post-medieval period.[b] Moreover, the idiomatic phrase to-and-fro (and its gerund toing-and-froing), which originate in the 1820s, also have a similar sense of repetitive movement, instability and vacillation.[9][10]

  1. ^ "willy-nilly". Collins Dictionary. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  2. ^ "willy-nilly". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  3. ^ "willy-nilly". Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  4. ^ "willy-nilly". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  5. ^ "pell-mell". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  6. ^ "How Quaint British Term "Helter Skelter" Ended Up Being Tied To Charles Manson". Refinery 29. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  7. ^ "hurry-scurry". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  8. ^ "higgledy-piggledy". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 14 September 2023.
  9. ^ "Definition of 'to and fro'". Collins Dictionary. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  10. ^ "Definition of 'to-ing and fro-ing'". Collins Dictionary. Retrieved 31 October 2023.


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