English

Alternative forms

• (male name): Willy

Proper noun

Willie

1. A male given name, diminutive of William.
   • 1579 Edmund Spenser: The Shepherd's Calendar: August:

     Well agreed, Willie; then sit thee down, swain;

     Such a song never heardest thou but Colin sing.

   • 1921 George Jean Nathan, Henry Mencken: The Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness. Item notes:v64:1(Jan.1921):page 4:

     Not one of his old friends but had been taken to task, in Willie's familiar note of boyish plaintiveness: "Why don't you call me by my own name? I never did like 'Willie' - 'William' isn't so bad. But the other sounds like pinafores and bed sheets."

   • 1970 Tony Hillerman: The Blessing Way: page 139:

     But the professor's voice had risen slightly in a question as he read "Jimmy Willie Hall" off the class card. The professor had intended no rudeness and he made this clear by nodding in ackowledgement to Jim's "Heah", but someone in the back of the room had sniggered and this churlishness to a stranger had embarrassed Ellen, embarrassed all the more because she, too, had smiled at the ludicrous sound.

2. A female given name derived from William or Wilhelmina, often given in the form Willie Mae.
   • 1989 John Grisham: A Time To Kill. Island Books 1996. ISBN 0440211727 page 308:

     Most of the names sounded white. There was Willie Mae Jones, Leroy Washington, Roosevelt Tucker, Bessie Lou Bean, and a few other black names. But the list looked awfully pale.

English

Noun

willie ‎(plural willies)

1. Alternative spelling of willy

See also

• the willies