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vicissitude

[vi-sis-i-tood, -tyood]
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noun
  1. a change or variation occurring in the course of something.
  2. interchange or alternation, as of states or things.
  3. vicissitudes, successive, alternating, or changing phases or conditions, as of life or fortune; ups and downs: They remained friends through the vicissitudes of 40 years.
  4. regular change or succession of one state or thing to another.
  5. change; mutation; mutability.
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Origin of vicissitude

1560–70; < Latin vicissitūdō, equivalent to viciss(im) in turn (perhaps by syncope < *vice-cessim; vice in the place of (see vice3) + cessim giving way, adv. derivative of cēdere to go, proceed) + -i- -i- -tūdō -tude
Related formsvi·cis·si·tu·di·nous, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

fluctuation, permutation, revolution, diversity, progression, variety, shift, uncertainty, novelty, alteration, variation, switch, turnaround, mutation, reversal, innovation, flip-flop, sport, about-face, alternation

Examples from the Web for vicissitude

Historical Examples

  • But, on the whole, death and vicissitude had done very little.

    Fragments from The Journal of a Solitary Man

    Nathaniel Hawthorne

  • Every grief hath that opportunity of cure; every joy that peril of vicissitude.

    St. Cuthbert's

    Robert E. Knowles

  • The Sun shone on it: the vicissitude of seasons and human fortunes.

    Past and Present

    Thomas Carlyle

  • What dark treasure-houses of vicissitude and woe are our memories become!

    Zanoni

    Edward Bulwer Lytton

  • London had hitherto been true to him through every vicissitude.

British Dictionary definitions for vicissitude

vicissitude

noun
  1. variation or mutability in nature or life, esp successive alternation from one condition or thing to another
  2. a variation in circumstance, fortune, character, etc
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Derived Formsvicissitudinary or vicissitudinous, adjective

Word Origin

C16: from Latin vicissitūdō, from vicis change, alternation
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for vicissitude

n.

1560s, from Middle French vicissitude (14c.), from Latin vicissitudinem (nominative vicissitudo) "change," from vicissim "changeably, in turn," from vicis "a turn, change" (see vicarious). Related: Vicissitudes.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper