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vicissitude

UK/vɪˈsɪs.ɪˌt(j)uːd/US/vɪˈsɪs.ɪˌt(j)uːd/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #15,243 of 15,258Too rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Other forms: vicissitudes

A vicissitude is one of the changes of fortune life brings. The vicissitudes of the trade.

It is nearly always plural and slightly formal, and it accepts change rather than complaining about it. The Latin behind it is turn and turn about, which is exactly the picture.

Definitions of vicissitude

  1. 1nounvicissitudeOne of the changes of fortune life brings.C2

    “He wrote about every vicissitude of forty years in one short book.”

vicissitude is a change.

Where it comes from

Latin vicissitudo comes from vicis, a turn or change.

  1. Latin

    vicissitūdō — change

  2. Middle French

    vicissitude

  3. English, today

    vicissitude

Built from

  • vicissim · Latin — on the other hand, in turn
  • vicis · Latin — change, vicissitude

From Middle French vicissitude, from Latin vicissitūdō (“change”), from vicissim (“on the other hand, in turn”), from vicis (“change, vicissitude”), whence Portuguese vez and French fois (“time (as in "next time"), occurrence”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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