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vagaries

[vuh-gair-ee, vey-guh-ree]

Origin

noun, plural -gar·ies.

an unpredictable or erratic action, occurrence, course, or instance: the vagaries of weather; the vagaries of the economic scene.

a whimsical, wild, or unusual idea, desire, or action.

Origin:
1565–75, in sense “wandering journey”; apparently < Latin vagārī to wander

Synonyms
2. caprice, whim, quirk, crotchet.

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Vagaries is always a great word to know.

So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:

a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.

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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

vagary

1577, "a wandering, a roaming journey," probably from L. vagari "to wander, roam, be unsettled, spread abroad" from vagus "roving, wandering" (see vague). Current meaning of "eccentric notion or conduct" (1629) is from notion of mental wandering.

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Matching Quote

"The clause which lived twenty-four hours in the Alabama Constitution, granting to taxpaying women owning $500 worth of property the suffrage on questions of bonded indebtedness, was killed by a disease peculiar to the genus homo known as chivalry. In the case in point, the diagnosis revealed that the fairest, purest and brightest jewels that ever shone under the brilliant rays of God's shining sun would be immeasurably lowered by voting upon questions relating to the taxation of their own property. Yet, under the vagaries of this disease, this same convention conferred on husbands the right to vote on their wives' property. This is the same character of chivalry which gives the wages of the brightest, fairest jewels to the husband, which makes impossible equal pay for equal work and which classes the jewels with the idiots, insane and criminals in that and other States."

-Anna Gordon

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vagaries

va·gar·y