To do something willy - nilly is to do it every which way , without planning or thinking , or without relate yourself about what the consequences of your actions might be . It ’s a flaky turn of set phrase we ’ve had in our language since the former 17th one C — the Oxford English Dictionary’searliest exampledates back to 1608 . The phrase ’s origins , however , take us a small further back in meter than that .
Etymologically , willy - nillyis a running - together of an earliest four - watchword phrase , multifariously recordedin the 1500sinforms such aswill ye nill ye , will he nill he , andwill I nill I. Both thewillandnillare verbs , to which the follow pronoun ( ye , I , he ) bit by bit became bond over meter , producing the rhyme compoundwilly - nilly . Over the age , lots of otherforms of this phrase came and go ( such asnilling , willingand evenwilliam - nilliam ) , but onlywilly - nillystood the test of prison term .
Thewillinwilly - nillyis actually the same verb , will , we have in English today — albeit used in a more or less different way . Back in Old and Middle English , willcould be usedto mean “ to want , to care for , or to trust ” ; it was through this notion of being determined to achieve or obtain something that the give-and-take later came to be used to mark the next tense ( “ I will do that tomorrow ” ) .
As for thenill , it was only the minus form of Old Englishwill , and so implied its direct opposite — to be unwilling , or to have no indirect request or desire to have or to do something . Pairingwillandnilltogether in sing - songy formations likewill he nill hemight just have been a natural way of counterpoint these two opposing state of mind , ultimately , but it has beensuggestedthat there might have been at least some influence from a similar , far aged Latin expression , nolens volens(“willing or unwilling ” ) , in usesincethe 9th century .
Whether formed severally in English or not , when put together those two root verbs intend that phrases such aswill he nill heeffectively imply “ whether he like it or not”—and it was from there thatwilly - nillycame to be used for any careless , unthinking , or haphazard action .
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