vicissitude

From Middle French vicissitude, from Latin vicissitudo (“change”), from vicissim (“on the other hand, in turn”), from vicis (“change, vicissitude”), whence Spanish vez and French fois (“time (as in next time), occurrence”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): [vɨˈsɪs.ɨˌt(j)u(ː)d], [vaɪˈsɪs.ɨˌt(j)u(ː)d][1]
• Hyphenation: vi‧cis‧si‧tude

vicissitude (plural vicissitudes)

1. Regular change or succession from one thing to another, or one part of a cycle to the next; alternation; mutual succession; interchange.
2. (often in the plural) A change, especially in one's life or fortunes.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, vii, 351,

     And God made.. the Stars, and set them in the firmament of Heaven to illuminate the Earth, and rule the day in their vicissitude...

   • 2003, "US redeployments afoot in Asia", Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 18, Pg. 6.,

     The vicissitudes of war in Iraq cast a dreary backdrop for Donald Rumsfeld's first visit to Asian military allies since he became US Defense Secretary in 2001.

   • Seneca

     Happy is the man who can endure the highest and lowest fortune. He who has endured such vicissitudes with equanimity has deprived misfortune of its power.

• ups and downs (informal)

• vicissitude in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• vicissitude in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• vicissitude at OneLook Dictionary Search

Borrowed from French vicissitude.

vicissitude f (plural vicissitudes, diminutive vicissitudetje n)

1. vicissitude

Borrowed from Latin vicissitūdō.

• IPA^(key): /vi.si.si.tyd/

vicissitude f (plural vicissitudes)

1. vicissitude

• “vicissitude” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

vicissitude f (plural vicissitudes)

1. vicissitude (regular change or succession from one thing to another)
2. an unfortunate occurrence

• (unfortunate occurrence): revés, infortúnio