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Webster 1913 Edition


Vicissitude

Vi-cis′si-tude

,
Noun.
[L.
vicissitudo
, fr.
vicis
change, turn: cf. F.
vicissitude
. See
Vicarious
.]
1.
Regular change or succession from one thing to another; alternation; mutual succession; interchange.
God made two great lights . . .
To illuminate the earth and rule the day
In their
vicissitude
, and rule the night.
Milton.
2.
Irregular change; revolution; mutation.
This man had, after many
vicissitudes
of fortune, sunk at last into abject and hopeless poverty.
Macaulay.

Webster 1828 Edition


Vicissitude

VICIS'SITUDE

,
Noun.
[L. vicissitudo; from vicis, a turn.]
1.
Regular change or succession of one thing to another; as the vicissitudes of day and night, and of winter and summer; the vicissitudes of the seasons.
2.
Change; revolution; as in human affairs. We are exposed to continual vicissitudes of fortune.

Definition 2024


vicissitude

vicissitude

English

Noun

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.

Synonyms

Translations

References

  1. vicissitude” (US) / “vicissitude” (UK) in Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press.

French

Noun

vicissitude f (plural vicissitudes)

  1. vicissitude

Portuguese

Noun

vicissitude f (plural vicissitudes)

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

Synonyms