different between whimsy vs vagary

English

Alternative forms

• whimsey

Etymology

Probably from whims +? -y. Related to whim-wham, whim.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?w?mzi/, /???mzi/

Noun

whimsy (usually uncountable, plural whimsies)

1. A quaint and fanciful idea; a whim; playfully odd behaviour.
2. An impulsive, illogical or capricious character.
3. (mining) A whim (capstan or vertical drum).
4. A jigsaw puzzle piece that has been cut into a recognizable shape, as if on a whim; often the shape is representative of the theme of the image used for the puzzle.

Translations

Verb

whimsy (third-person singular simple present whimsies, present participle whimsying, simple past and past participle whimsied)

1. (transitive) To fill with whimsies or whims; to make fantastic; to craze.

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