Talk:vicissity

RFV discussion: February 2016

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vicissity

Zero hits for "a vicissity" even on Google Web. Equinox ◑ 03:12, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

The only cites I can find in the singular are in word lists, but the plural is more common:

Kiwima (talk) 04:20, 4 February 2016 (UTC)

These look like misspellings of "vicissitudes". vicissitudes,vicissities at the Google Books Ngram Viewer. does not find "vicissities" at all. Either fail this RFV or take this to RFD to have it deleted there. --Dan Polansky (talk) 13:35, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

Google Books finds vicissity in 4 English language books, but doesn't show the actual text. This means that the copyright terms are too restrictive, and don't allow google to show the corresponding pages. But the word in actually there. Yurivict (talk) 08:57, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

Even if the word/spelling is there, it can be a misspelling, and we exclude rare misspellings per WT:CFI#Spellings. --Dan Polansky (talk) 10:23, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

My gut reaction would have the same as yours, to view it as an error for vicissitudes, except that vicissit-ies /iz/ and vicissit-udes /udz/ would be pronounced differently. It might be a misconstruction (a category would include eggcorns, and which I'm not entirely sure of our approach towards); then again, it might just be a normal though rare construction with -ity rather than -itude. A 1950 edition of Anglia (volumes 69-70, page 258), although it only mentions the word, treats it as a real word: it is commenting on vowels, and says "2) that [ai] is the only modern form in digest, 3) that [ai] is the main form besides which [i] in digress, dilute, diluvian, diversion, diversity, divert, divest, divulge, 4) and that [ai] is a subsidiary form at least besides [i] in didactic, dimension, fidelity, vicissitude, vicissity." - -sche (discuss) 18:35, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

Nathan Bailey's 1736 Dictionarium Britannicum: Or a More Compleat Universal Etymological English Dictionary has

• Vicissitude [F. vicissitudine, It. of vicissitudo, L.] the succeeding of one thing after another, &c.
• Vicissity [vicissitas, L.] a changing or succeeding by course, an interchangeable course.

Benjamin Martin's 1749 Lingua Britannica Reformata: Or, a New English Dictionary has

• Vicissitude (of vicissitudo, L. of vicis change) change, turn, or revolution.
• Vicissity (o vicissitas, L. of vicis change) a changing, or succeeding by course.

and according to Google's cached revision of findwords.info, it's in the OED (can anyone confirm?) as

• vicissity viˈcissity Obs.— [ad. L. vicissitas (rare) change, alteration.] (See quot.)
  1721 Bailey, Vicissity, a changing or succeeding by Course; an interchangeable Course.

This suggests that the -ity form has been used by some people intentionally (rather than erroneously, as a mispelling), though it is rare and largely obsolete and we may need to tweak our definition. - -sche (discuss) 18:46, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

I can confirm it’s in the OED, as

• † viˈcissity, n.
  Etymology: < Latin vicissitas (rare) change, alteration.
  Obs.—0
  (See quot. 1721.)
  1721 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. Vicissity, a changing or succeeding by Course; an interchangeable Course. Vorziblix (talk) 19:19, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

Antonio Vieyra's 1773 Dictionary of the Portuguese and English Languages uses "vicissitude, vicissity, a changing" to gloss Portuguese "vicissitude, s. f." I am not sure if we allow that as a use of "vicissity" or not. I think we allowed a word used in a monolingual dictionary's longer definition at least once before (I'm trying to find it, but it was along the lines of: we allowed "foobar, n.: an animal with four legs and a barfoo" as a citation of "barfoo"). - -sche (discuss) 19:05, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

The second etymology of flower was cited in a similar way, but in the citations for flower, the word flower was used as part of a longer phrase like fast flower or swift flower used to define a foreign word (like your foobar example). In contrast, here vicissity seems to be used as a one-word gloss of a foreign word. I'm inclined to accept the Vieyra citation, but I think it's not as clear-cut as the citations for flower. —Mr. Granger (talk • contribs) 19:27, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

Aha; I had forgotten about that one. I agree that Vieyra, with his string of three one-word glosses, is not as obviously acceptable. - -sche (discuss) 19:50, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

By searching with "f" (scanno for long s) instead of "s", I've found two more old citations, including one that uses the singular (which, unfortunately, is the one where the meaning is least clear). - -sche (discuss) 19:20, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

Actually, this citation:

• 1813, Matthew Gregory Lewis, The Anaconda: An East Indian tale, page 69:

  Without heeding him, I managed to lift him upon my ſhoulders, and tottering beneath his weight I endeavoured to effect our eſcape from the dangerous viciſſity of the pavilion.

although viciſſity is clearly the word printed on the page, looks like an error for vicinity, and that word is indeed the one used in later editions of the same text. However, the 1763 I added still stands. - -sche (discuss) 19:50, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

There's also:

• 1906 June, Clark E. Hetherington, Neglected Factors in the Production of Nervous Diseases, in Cleveland Medical and Surgical Reporter, volume 14, number 6, page 234:

  The individuality of the child is lost sight of and it is left to the only resource that it has, namely development. Besides the vicissities of the purely vegetative life, the delicate nervous system is immediately subjected to all the harsh impressions of an unnatural environment.

- -sche (discuss) 19:57, 7 February 2016 (UTC)

RFV-passed, IMO. - -sche (discuss) 19:47, 14 February 2016 (UTC)