vagary

noun
/vəˈɡɛɚ.i/

Etymology

From Italian vagare (“wander”) and/or its source Latin vagārī (“to wander”), from Latin vagus (“wandering”). Later apparently reinterpreted in English as vague + -ery but without changing the spelling. By surface analysis, Latin vag(us) + -ary.

  1. derived from vagus
  2. borrowed from vagor — “to wander
  3. borrowed from vagare — “wander

Definitions

  1. An erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action.

    • This searching was facilitated by the author's knowledge of the vagaries of Anglo-Indian spelling and the numerous colonial-era transliteration systems used for loanwords from Indian languages.
    • These systems learn the vagaries of language by analyzing enormous amounts of text, including thousands of books, Wikipedia entries and other online documents.
  2. Something vague.

    • to speak in vagaries
  3. An impulsive or illogical desire

    An impulsive or illogical desire; a caprice or whim.

    • And then came the day when my socialism grew respectable,—still a vagary of youth, it was held, but romantically respectable.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for vagary. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA