1. a change of circumstances or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant: "her husband's sharp vicissitudes of fortune"
▪ alternation between opposite or contrasting things:"the vicissitude of the seasons"
Word Originearly 17th century (in the sense ‘alternation’): from French, or from Latin vicissitudo, from vicissim ‘by turns’, from vic- ‘turn, change’.