Willy nilly

Willy nilly comes not from Latin, but from Anglo Saxon. I can't call to mind exactly how the original phrase worked, but it translates literally as 'whether he wishes to or not'. The nill is the negative form. If I can find the exact phrase, I'll do another post (on the assumption that the inhabitants of the bananafish bowl take the same unhealthy interest in linguistic minutiae as I do).

While I'm posting, I'd like to say thanks for all the great Salinger related talk going on recently. I haven't much to add at the moment, but it's great to see the list alive and kicking again.

Lucy-Ruth

- --- James Rovira wrote:

>
> I wonder if it was really willy-nilly (funny, Byron
> uses the phrase,
> "Will I Nill I" -- wonder where that came from?
> Latin?), or if he
> followed some kind of guideline, such as citations
> in other articles.
>
>

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Received on Thu Nov 6 15:22:33 2003