vagary

[Bailey]

va·ga·ry (vg-r, v-gâr)
n. pl. va·ga·ries
An extravagant or erratic notion or action.



[From Latin vagr, to wander, from vagus, wandering.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

mark vaguely Bailey

[sluggo]

In use:

A plague on this vagary,
I'm in a nice quandary -
Of hasty tone
with dames unknown,
I ought to be more chary;
It seems that she's a fairy
From Andersen's library,
And I took her for the proprietor
Of a La-dies' Se-mi-nary!

-W.S. Gilbert, Iolanthe Act I finale (1882)

[Perry]

Good'un Sluggo. Conversely, the Ruler of the Queen's Navy (in HMS Pinafore) was not at all vague on how he got his post.

Ah, the vagaries of life.