AU, UK /ˌwɪl.iːˈnɪl.iː/ · CA, US, SC /ˌwɪl.iˈnɪl.i/
Etymology
Literally, “Be one willing to, be one unwilling to”. From will I, nill I (“whether I want to or not”, with both verbs in the subjunctive), reflecting the old (viz. pre-Great Vowel Shift) pronunciation of I as ee, not yet as eye. Conflated with will he, nill he (with silent h) and will ye, nill ye (with yod dropping), meaning likewise “be he/you willing or not”. For more, refer to the individual component words: * will (“to desire, to wish, to be willing”) (archaic) * nill (“to not desire or wish, to be unwilling”) (obsolete) Compare Latin volens nolens, velim nōlim and English harum-scarum, which have this same meaning.
1
Whether desired or not; without regard for consequences or wishes of those affected; whether willingly or unwillingly.
Whenever I see a long handsome neck, willy nilly, the thought will come uppermost—What a capital neck for carving! Those cursed executions! One can't rid one's mind of them.1868, [Johann Wolfgang von] Goethe, translated by Arthur Duke Coleridge, Egmont. A Tragedy. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, act II, page 40:
[I]f you love him not, then you can love me, and, therefore, can come to please yourself, willy-nilly. What! am I to be thwarted in such a trifle? Willy-nilly, I say, I will marry thee. Come—we waste the time.1889, Walter Besant, “A Slight Thing at the Best”, in For Faith and Freedom […], volume II, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, page 243:
1 more example
The outer world is what we wake up to every morning of our lives, is the place where, willy-nilly, we must try to make our living.1954, Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 36:
The novel Alice in Wonderland describes a place where things happen willy-nilly.
Some writers chasing money churn out novels willy-nilly.
willy-nilly
adj
Etymology
Literally, “Be one willing to, be one unwilling to”. From will I, nill I (“whether I want to or not”, with both verbs in the subjunctive), reflecting the old (viz. pre-Great Vowel Shift) pronunciation of I as ee, not yet as eye. Conflated with will he, nill he (with silent h) and will ye, nill ye (with yod dropping), meaning likewise “be he/you willing or not”. For more, refer to the individual component words: * will (“to desire, to wish, to be willing”) (archaic) * nill (“to not desire or wish, to be unwilling”) (obsolete) Compare Latin volens nolens, velim nōlim and English harum-scarum, which have this same meaning.
1
That happens whether willingly or unwillingly.
[S]omeone saw thy willy-nilly nun / Vying a tress against our golden fern.1877, Alfred Tennyson, Harold: A Drama, London: Henry S. King & Co., →OCLC, Act V, scene v, page 129:
O my God, if man be only / A willy-nilly current of sensations— / Reaction needs must follow revel—yet— / Why feel remorse, he, knowing that he must have / Moved in the iron grooves of Destiny?1882, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “The Promise of May”, in Locksley Hall Sixty Years After etc., London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1886, →OCLC, Act II, page 119: