When doing something “willy-nilly”, you’re doing it haphazardly, with no planning or forethought, especially about the consequences of your actions. It’s a peculiar turn of phrase that’s been in our language since the early 1600s (1608, to be specific, according to the earliest example in the Oxford English Dictionary). But how willy-nilly originated, though, goes further back in time than that.

“Willy-nilly” is actually a running-together of an earlier 4-word phrase, variously recorded in the 16th century in forms such as “will ye nill ye”, “will he nill he”, and “will I nill I”. Both the “will” & “nill” are verbs, to which the ye/he/I pronouns gradually became attached over time, leading to the compounded rhyme of “willy-nilly”. Over the years, several other forms of this same phrase came & went (like nilling, willing, and even william-nilliam). But only “willy-nilly” stood the test of time.

The “will” in willy-nilly is actually the same verb we have in our modern English, albeit with a slightly different usage. Back in Old & Middle English, “will” could be used to mean “to want, wish for, or desire”. And it was through that notion of being determined to achieve or obtain something that the word “will” would go on to signal a future tense action (“I will do that tomorrow”).

As for the “nill”, that was simply the negative form of “will” in Old English, so it implied the direct opposite, to be unwilling, or to have no wish or desire to have or do something. Pairing will & nill together in sing-songy formations like “will he nill he” was probably just a natural way of contrasting those two opposing states of mind.

So, when those two root verbs (will & nill) were put together, as “will he nill he”, what it basically implied was “whether he wishes it or not”. And from there, “willy-nilly” went on to be used for any careless, unthinking, or haphazard action.

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