#72052
06/05/2002 5:10 PM
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1 |
Does anyone know the origin of the term 'wily-nily'? I have looked through several references and can't find any allusion to the term. Thanks for the help
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#72053
06/05/2002 5:48 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear mturet: please check for Private Message
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#72054
06/07/2002 10:21 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
OED : for "willy-nilly" : haphazardly, at random, existing or occurring whether one likes it or not also for plain "willy" : well-disposed, benevolent. Also, In NW Australia - willy is a cyclone or dust storm. While looking that up I ran across another interesting word : "willyart" = wild, shy, self-willed, obstinate. And plain old willy is given as : willing, eager, -OR - a sudden squall in the south Pacific! Ain't dictionaries wunnerfull ? No mention of course, in the staid Oxford English, of "willy" as a euphemism for a man's dangly bit! 
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#72055
06/08/2002 12:24 AM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
Speaking of the willies, does anyone remember the old "Little Willie" poems?
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#72056
06/08/2002 1:27 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
No mention of course, in the staid Oxford English, of "willy" as a euphemism for a man's dangly bit!
Well, it's not ALWAYS dangly! And it did make for much merriment when a movie came out entitled, "Free Willie!" I think it was about Clinton.
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#72057
06/08/2002 2:00 AM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
and in victorian pornography (i have rather eclectic tastes in reading and i have read some--) there is often a meantion of "john william" appearing.. i have trouble reading.. i work out the words, and sometimes miss the subtext..well i didn't realize at first who john william or john willy was! John Willy doesn't dangle or dawdle, or demure! Suddenly, the light went on! Oh, ! i mean i knew it was labled pornography (victorian pornography is, by todays standards, less titilating and reveling than most romance novels) so i should have caught on sooner..
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#72058
06/10/2002 12:19 PM
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Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 1,526 |
Nope, but from my favorite translation of
my favorite poet:
"Into this world and why not knowing,
like water, willy-nilly flowing,
and out of it like wind along the waste,
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing."
k
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#72059
06/10/2002 12:43 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 872 |
...victorian pornography (i have rather eclectic tastes in reading and i have read some--) there is often a meantion of "john william" appearing.. i have trouble reading.. i work out the words, and sometimes miss the subtext..well i didn't realize at first who john william or john willy was! - Of Troy Why thank you of troy, now forever I'll always think of your elucidating post when I turntable the haunting romantic melodies of Little Willie John, and by extension, I will think of you. _______________________  _____________________
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#72060
06/10/2002 1:22 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
I am hopeful of someday finding a copy of Three Weeks (1907) by Elinor Glyn, a novel distained by the critics but adored by the public, which inspired (among other things) the following: Would you like to sin
With Elinor Glyn
On a tiger skin?
Or would you prefer
To err with her
On some other fur?http://www.likesbooks.com/hist1.html provides notes on interest on Ms. Glyn and others. The homepage, http://www.likesbooks.com, titled "All About Romance", calls itself "the romance readers home for romance novels". Edit: I look forward to perusing the "Purple Prose Parody" section of the latter. 
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#72061
06/10/2002 9:03 PM
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,208 Likes: 2
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 11,208 Likes: 2 |
Didn't Shakespeare get into the act too, in Taming of Shrew, with some statement like "Will ye, nill ye, I will wed ye!" (couldn't be Act Two, could it?) T'would have been a paraphrase of "will he, nill he" ( = willy-nilly) meaning whether he wanted to ("will he") or not ("nill he").
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