A Storm Approaches..

The word capricious comes from the French term capricieux. This term originates from the sixteenth century and is an adjective meaning whimsical or temperamental. It is also known to have come from the Italian term, capriccioso. In Italian this word is usually applied to music and means lively and free.

In the book, Charlotte Temple, the character Belcour is a borderline alcoholic womanizer. He woes poor Charlotte Temple after she has been left alone and pregnant by her previous suitor, Montraville. Author Susanna Rowson describes Belcour as, "He possessed a genteel fortune, had a liberal education; dissipated, thoughtless, and capricious, he paid little regard to the moral duties, and less to religious ones: eager in the pursuit of pleasure, he minded not the miseries of others, provided his own wishes, however extravagent, were gratified" (32). Now days, capricious is directly defined as "a sudden unpredictable change; fickle; whimsical". This word applies to Belcour because, in my own opinion, he is quite an unpredictable, fickle, character. One minute Belcour is eagerly pursuing Charlotte, doing everything in his power to split her and Montraville up. Montraville and Belcour are speaking about Charlotte, and Belcour says something to imply that Charlotte has cheated on Montraville with himself, Montraville says, "'...You cannot mean to insinuate that Charlotte is false,'" and Belcour responds,"'I dont insinuate it...I know it'" (76). The next minute he has completely lost interest in Charlotte saying, "...She was no longer an object of desire: it is true for several days he went constantly to see her, but her pale, emaciated appearance disgusted him...he left the unhappy girl to sink unnoticed to the grave, a prey to sickness, grief, and penury" (90). This is just one example of how Belcour's personality could be seen as "capricious".

Althought capricious is not commonly used in every day language in this century, it is used seldomly. For example, there is a magazine called Be Capricious. I think the term capricious was a good choice for this magazine because for each issue they publish, a different topic is chosen. One issue they published about feminism, another issue about animals, and another issue about secrecy.

I think that this word could be very useful in daily life. If you happen to be having a conversation about the weather one day and you have a feeling it could change soon, you could describe it as being capricious. I also think you could use this term to describe people. If you and your friend are trying to figure out what to do, but your friend keeps changing their mind, you could tell them to stop being so capricious. I think that this word can make someone more literate just because even though it is not very commonly used, if it is used, they will know what it means.