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Today's Word "capricious"

Apt to change suddenly on

Published in Vocabulary

capricious \kuh-PRISH-us; -PREE-shus\ (adjective) - Apt to change suddenly; whimsical; changeable.

"Perhaps the ancients were right, and we mortals are merely playthings of a capricious fate." -- Tom Harper, ' Knights of the Cross'

 

Capricious comes, via French, from Italian capriccio, a shivering, a shudder, finally (influenced by Italian capra, goat) a whim, from capo, head (from Latin caput) + riccio, hedgehog (from Latin ericius). The basic idea is that of a head with hair standing on end, like the spines of a hedgehog.


 

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