To save this word, you'll need to log in. The noun caprice , which first appeared in English in the midth century, is a synonym of whim. Evidence shows that the adjective capricious debuted about sixty years before caprice ; it's likely, however, that both words derived via French from the Italian capriccio , which originally referred not to a sudden desire but to a sudden shudder of fear.

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capricious
Synonyms for capricious arbitrary careless erratic fickle flighty helter-skelter impulsive quirky temperamental unpredictable unreasonable unstable volatile wayward whimsical any way the wind blows blowing hot and cold changeful contrary crotchety effervescent every which way fanciful fitful flaky freakish gaga humorsome inconstant kinky lubricious mercurial moody mutable notional odd picky punchy queer ticklish up and down vagarious variable yo-yo MOST RELEVANT. How noisy and romping the brook was; how capricious, how playful, how furtive! Art is not dignified by being called whimsical--or capricious. Your duty to your capricious brother, not to your father, you mean, Madam. The rouge-et-noir player imagines that chance is not capricious. So many women are capricious, breaking into odd flaws of passion or frivolity.
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The list is as capricious —its bounds known only to its mysterious conceivers—as it is precise. We remain constantly curious about what great designers will turn out from their capricious artistic alchemy. Beholden to a base that, like a capricious autocrat, will turn against them at the slightest provocation. In the morning grave, dignified and sweet, at noon laughing, capricious , at evening whatever one least expected. And it was not, be it remembered, the work of a capricious and cruel despot; it was the tyranny of a solemn legislative assembly. The Mediterranean is like a capricious woman; the North Sea is like a violent and capricious man. The old Fleming found, no doubt, both pleasure and profit in lending himself to the capricious pleasures of his royal client. But England was then inclined to take its religion from the nod of a capricious tyrant.