Vagary

Pronunciation

• GenAm IPA: /vəˈɡɛɹi/
• GenAm IPA: /ˈveɪɡəɹi/

Origin

From Latin vagus ("wandering").

Full definition of vagary

Noun

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.

Derived terms

• vagarity
• vagarious