vagary

From Latin vagus (“wandering”).

• (General American, formerly) IPA^(key): /vəˈɡɛɹi/
• (General American, now commonly) IPA^(key): /ˈveɪɡəɹi/

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vagary (plural vagaries)

1. An erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action.
   • 1871, Charles Kingsley, At Last: A Christmas In The West Indies, ch. 8:

     It now turns out that the Pitch Lake, like most other things, owes its appearance on the surface to no convulsion or vagary at all, but to a most slow, orderly, and respectable process of nature, by which buried vegetable matter, which would have become peat, and finally brown coal, in a temperate climate, becomes, under the hot tropic soil, asphalt and oil.

2. An impulsive or illogical desire; a caprice or whim.
   • 1905, Jack London, War of the Classes, Preface:

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

• (impulsive or illogical desire): see Thesaurus:whim

• vagarity
• vagarious

• vaguery

• Varyag