On Nov 9, 2005, at 9:07, Helen wrote:
If you want to know any more, have a look here
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-wil2.htm
Thanks for the site, Helen. Reading that explanation made me realise
that one reason I took to "willy-nilly" like duck to water is that, in
Polish, we used (at least among my contemporaries; don't know about
youngsters like Weronika) the Latin phrase "nolens volens", without any
changes/translations almost as often as the truly Polish "chcac
niechcac" (wanting not wanting). But I never thought of it as meaning
"wishy-washy" (here's another weird one <g>), or haphazard; always as
being forced to do somethng, whether I liked it or not.
Like in the little rhyme my English teacher in highschool taught us:
Whether it rains or snows
Whether it's cold or hot.
Whatever the weather
We'll weather the weather
Whether we like it or not
Going through the dictionary I just spotted another word pronounced the
same way, but which she never mentioned: wether...
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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