Dictionary entry

Vicissitude

Webster's Dictionary 1913

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.