Wille Nulle

An acquaintance of mine has the habit of using the phrase 'willy-nilly' to mean 'any old how', 'at random'.  This always disconcerts me, because the term really means 'whether you want it or not', and is derived from the outdated English will = wish or want, and its opposite 'nill', being a sort of contraction of
'not-will'.  The terms 'wille' and 'nulle', signifying 'wish' and 'wish not' may be found in Old English (the language of the Anglo-Saxons who came to Britain from the North Germany/Denmark area in the 5th century).

Actually, the explanation of the form 'willy-nilly' may be a little more complicated.  We may guess that the person who first wrote 'willy-nilly' way back in the seventeenth century was a scholar who also knew the old Latin phrase volens nolens, meaning (literally) 'willing unwilling'.

But although respectable dictionaries record our popular phrase as meaning "willing or unwilling", or "whether I want to or not", other modern ones offer the alternative meaning "at random".  This usage appears (like so many wrenchings of English terms) to have originated comparatively recently in the USA, and is obviously based on popular misunderstanding and misuse.

Unfortunately modern 'descriptive' as opposed to 'prescriptive' dictionaries appear to sanction any number of misuses of our language.  Possibly there are even some school-teachers in Britain who believe that the accurate use of words is just a pedantic fad, and (perhaps) that even grammar and spelling are matters for individuals to decide for themselves.  There are good reasons to prefer a degree of 'prescription'.  Otherwise we shall have people using words willy-nilly in the rogue sense.

Wille Nulle