Vicissitudes

Etymology

Middle French, from Latin vicissitudo, from vicissim in turn, from vicis change, alternation

• Date: circa 1576

Definitions

• 1 a : the quality or state of being changeable : mutability

b : natural change or mutation visible in nature or in human affairs

• 2 a : a favorable or unfavorable event or situation that occurs by chance : a fluctuation of state or condition <the vicissitudes of daily life>

b : a difficulty or hardship attendant on a way of life, a career, or a course of action and usually beyond one's control

c : alternating change

Quote

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