Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Vicissitude"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Vicissitude \Vi*cis"si*tude\, n. [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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
vicissitude
n 1: a variation in circumstances or fortune at different times
in your life or in the development of something; "the
project was subject to the usual vicissitudes of
exploratory research"
2: mutability in life or nature (especially successive
alternation from one condition to another)
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