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That phrase you're looking for is willy nilly. You did a bone apple tea.
by fsmv 3y ago
That phrase you're looking for is willy nilly. You did a bone apple tea.
- Feathercrown 3y agoBone apple tea, with an em dash to boot
- urxvtcd 3y agowill (hypen-minus) he (en-dash) nill (hyphen-minus) he
- yifanl 3y agoShakespeare had it as will he nill he in Hamlet: > “If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is, will he nill he, he goes - mark you that.” (Hamlet.V.1) Though I admit I didn't know this until I actually looked it up just now :)
- bee_rider 3y ago“Will he nill he…” huh, I wonder if that’s the etymology of the modern expression. “Willy-nilly” just seems like a nonsense phrase. “Will he nill he” could be read as “will he or will he not,” right? It seems like only a couple short conceptual hops to go from “whether or not he decides to do something” to “look at all the random things he could do.”
- DiggyJohnson 3y agoI largely agree with you, but I can imagine a scenario where there is some connection to "Will he? Won't he?" semantically.
- eru 3y ago> Will he nill he…” huh, I wonder if that’s the etymology of the modern expression. Well, that's at least what the internet told me, last time I checked.
- bee_rider 3y agoI suppose I should have looked it up! For some reason I just looked up the definition of nill and tried to work out a plausible folk etymology from there.