Re: willy-nilly

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

flash wrote:
> The combination appears to be native. "Will" of course is closely
> related in meaning and spelling to the German "Wille", and "nill" may
> derive from either French "ne" (not) or German "Nil" (nothing, zero).
> 'Not as willed' or 'against the will' is the evident meaning.
I wasn't talking about etymology but about something much more
subtle and less easy--in this case, probably impossible--to
prove, one way or the other: had English speakers been saying
"will I nill I" and then learn Latin and come across nolens
volens and say "Oh, sure. Will I nill I"? Or did they first come
across nolens volens and think, "Now that's an interesting way of
putting things. How would we do that in English?"
I say it's almost impossible to prove, because there isn't that
much written English in the earliest stages that wasn't written
by people who know Latin too. In fact, the first citation of the
will-nill construction in the OED is from King Alfred's
translation of Boethius.
--
Patricia M. Godfrey
priscamg@xxxxxxxx