different between vagary vs escapade

English

Etymology

From Latin vagus (“wandering”).

Pronunciation

• (General American, formerly) IPA^(key): /v?????i/
• (General American, now commonly) IPA^(key): /?ve????i/

Noun

vagary (plural vagaries)

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.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus: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

Related terms

• vague
• vagrant
• vagabond

Translations

See also

• vaguery

Anagrams

• Varyag

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French escapade (“the act of escaping; a trick”), borrowed from Old Spanish escapada, from escapar (“to escape”), from Vulgar Latin *excapp? (“to escape”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?s'k?-p?d', IPA^(key): /??sk??pe?d/
• Rhymes: -e?d

Noun

escapade (plural escapades)

1. A daring or adventurous act; an undertaking which goes against convention.
   • 1816, Sir Walter Scott, The Antiquary - Volume II, ch. 9:

     [Nobody] stood more confounded than Oldbuck at this sudden escapade of his nephew. "Is the devil in him," was his first exclamation, "to go to disturb the brute?"

   • 1918, P. G. Wodehouse, Piccadilly Jim, ch. 1:

     He is always doing something to make himself notorious. There was that breach-of-promise case, and that fight at the political meeting, and his escapades at Monte Carlo.

   • 2011 March 4, Richard Corliss, "The Adjustment Bureau" (film review), Time (retrieved 23 March 2014):

     He seems on the verge of winning the New York Senate election when the New York Post runs a photo of David’s exposed butt in a mooning escapade from his college days.

Related terms

• escape

Translations

French

Noun

escapade f (plural escapades)

1. escapade

Galician

Verb

escapade

1. second-person plural imperative of escapar