Conversation
Notices
-
Santa Claes πΈπͺππ°π (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Sunday, 09-Jan-2022 17:42:07 UTC Santa Claes πΈπͺππ°π There's an interesting "will" gradient in Germanic languages:
German "will": want to
Dutch, Afrikaans "wil": want to, wish
Swedish "vill": want to
Nynorsk, BokmΓ₯l, Danish "vil": want to, should, will, would
West Frisian/Frysk "wol": want to, will
English "will": will
Source: Wiktionary, except Frysk intuited from example phrases in Wikitravel-
Matthew "Smiffy" Smith (grumpysmiffy@aus.social)'s status on Monday, 10-Jan-2022 01:26:14 UTC Matthew "Smiffy" Smith @clacke English has drifted away. Old English wyllan: to want.
Willy-nilly coming from will ye, nill ye (or he) so whether you want to or not. (Nill coming from nyllan, the opposite of wyllan.)
Went down a bit of a rabbit-hole checking that up. ο»Ώhttps://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2020/11/willy-nilly.html
Santa Claes πΈπͺππ°π likes this.
-