capricious
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 19, 2021 is: capricious \kuh-PRISH-us\ adjective : governed or characterized by [caprice](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/caprice) : [impulsive](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/impulsive), [unpredictable](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unpredictable) Examples: "Like all great children's writers, [Jacqueline] Wilson and [E.] Nesbit understood how strange and capricious children could be…." — [Guy Lodge, Variety, 4 Apr. 2020](https://variety.com/2020/film/reviews/four-kids-and-it-review-1234570289/) "[The television show] Succession doesn't just get the details right; mirroring the capricious world of media and its greedy overlords, it also makes sweeping plot turns that build to climaxes as bloody as Macbeth." — [Laura Adamczyk, The A.V. Club, 11 Nov. 2019](https://tv.avclub.com/the-100-best-tv-shows-of-the-2010s-1839672858) Did you know? The adjective capricious and its close relation, the noun [caprice](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/caprice) (a synonym of [whim](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whim)), both derive via French from the Italian capriccio, which originally referred not to a sudden desire but to a sudden shudder of fear. Capriccio, in turn, likely derives from the Italian capo, meaning "head," and riccio, the word for "hedgehog." The implication was that someone who shuddered in fear was said to have a "hedgehog head," meaning that the person's hair stood on end like the spines of a hedgehog.