VICISSITUDE

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Dr. Goodword
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VICISSITUDE

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu May 28, 2009 12:10 am

• vicissitude •

Pronunciation: vi-sis-ê-tyud • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: An unexpected change, twist, or shift.

Notes: Today's word comes with a plethora of adjectives to choose from: vicissitudinous, is my favorite, though vicissitudinal and vicissitudinary are close behind. I find this word to be one of the most beautiful in the language even though it did not quite make my 100 Most Beautiful Words because of all the hissing it makes.

In Play: Vicissitudes are one of the fundamental properties of life itself: "Shakespeare characterized the vicissitudes of life as 'the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune' in his famous tragedy Hamlet." Vicissitudes differ from ordinary shifts and changes in they are generally unexpected; we don't plan vicissitudes: "Giving birth to a daughter visited a host of vicissitudes upon Amanda that caught her ill-prepared to cope with."

Word History: Today's Good Word comes from Latin vicissitudo "change, vicissitude." The Latin word is based on vicissim "in turn", probably from vicis "(of) a turn or change", the genitive case of vix (vic-s). The ablative of this word, vice, gave us our prefix, vice-, as in vice-president, referring to a replacement. The root of this word came through the old Germanic languages to Old English as wice "pliant, bendable', ending up in wicker and as wych in the names of trees with pliant branches, such as the wych hazel. The latter expression, of course, turned into 'witch hazel' when we began to douse for underground water using a Y-shaped branch of witch hazel. Dousers (still) claim such branches bend magically downward toward water when passing over it. (We hope the vicissitudes of Harold Turrentine's life do not discourage him from finding and conveying to us more Good Words like today's.)
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Postby Slava » Thu Jan 27, 2011 1:16 am

I saw today a bizarre news-type item speaking of the relative dearth of GOP Presidential candidates so far. One idea proffered was that Obama is a shoo-in for 2012, so why bother running against him? Given the vicissitudes of politics, I do believe it's a tad early for such prognostications. Up, down, back and forth, all these folks are going to be tossed and turned in the next 21 months. Talk about vicissitude!
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


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