shilly-shally

****************************************************************
Bring the gift of knowledge home for the holidays with the 
Eleventh Edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?c11.htm&1
****************************************************************

The Word of the Day for December 9 :

shilly-shally   \SHIL-ee-shal-ee\   adverb
     : in an irresolute, undecided, or hesitating manner 

Example sentence:
     "Don't stand shilly-shally like a fool, Ned. Just make up your mind and 
marry the woman," advised Gretchen.

Did you know?
     Shall I?  Shall I? When you just don't know what to do, it may feel as if 
asking that question twice will somehow help you decide. The early 1600s saw 
the use of the phrase "stand shall I, shall I" to describe vacillation or 
indecision. By 1700, the phrase had been altered to "shill I, shall I," most 
likely because people just liked the vowel alteration (that's the same process 
that gave us "dillydally" and "wishy-washy"). Soon after, the form 
"shilly-shally" made the jump from slang to literature, and by the late 1700s 
it was being used not only as an adverb, but also as an adjective, a noun, and 
a verb.