Dilly, dilly!

I'm sure you've seen and heard the pharse "dilly, dilly" a lot lately. So, where did it come from?

"That's a dilly of a question!" :) Yes, "dilly of a" can be a synonym for excellent and perhaps delightful, and it has been used that way since at least the early 1930's, but dilly is older than that.

Lavender Blue is the rhyme or song that introduced me to dilly, dilly. The first version I heard was back in the mid-50's, but the lyric goes back to, at least, the early 1700's. What does it mean in this lyric? Well, it looks like excellent, delightful, wonderful, pretty would all fit in there in place of dilly, dilly doesn't it?

And then there's the lullaby:

Lavender's Blue (Dilly Dilly)

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,
Lavender's green
When you are king, dilly dilly,
I shall be queen

Who told you so, dilly dilly,
Who told you so?
'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,
That told me so

Call up your friends, dilly, dilly
Set them to work
Some to the plough, dilly dilly,
Some to the fork

Some to the hay, dilly dilly,
Some to thresh corn
Whilst you and I, dilly dilly,
Keep ourselves warm

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly,
Lavender's green
When you are king, dilly dilly,
I shall be queen

Who told you so, dilly dilly,
Who told you so?
'Twas my own heart, dilly dilly,
That told me so.

By the way, I dug around and dilly is used in Australia as a combination of daft and silly...and that makes sense...but daft and silly in an entertaining, delightful way.

So!  Have a dilly, dilly day!