capriciousadj.

1594 R. Carew tr. J. Huarte Exam. Mens Wits 153 The inventive wits are termed in the Tuscan tongue capricious (capriciuso) for the resemblance they bear to a goat, who takes no pleasure in the open and easy plains, but loves to caper along the hill-tops.

a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) iii. iii. 6 I am heere with thee, and thy Goats, as the most capricious Poet honest Ouid was among the Gothes. View more context for this quotation

1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks III. Misc. iii. i. 142 The capricious Point, and Play of Words.

1605 W. Camden Remaines ii. 57 A friend of his that knew him to be Caprichious.

1644 England's Tears in Harl. Misc. (1810) V. 450 The monstrous exorbitant liberty, that almost every capricious mechanick takes to himself.

1753 S. Johnson Adventurer No. 111. ⁋6 Our estimation of birth is arbitrary and capricious.

1833 J. Rennie Alphabet Sci. Angling 49 We have known the salmon..so capricious as often to prefer a fancy fly.

1884 Law Times Rep. 10 May 325/1 The defendants' refusal was not capricious, but a bonâ fide exercise of their judgment.

1823 C. Lamb in London Mag. July 24/1 The capricious hues of the sea, shifting like the colours of a dying mullet.

1847 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. (ed. 7) iii. li. 767 This capricious distribution of coral reefs is probably owing to the absence of fit stations for the reef-building polypifers.

1875 A. Helps Social Pressure vi. 75 The vicissitudes of a capricious climate.

1875 B. Stewart & P. G. Tait Unseen Universe iv. §118 To give to the atoms a perfectly arbitrary and capricious side movement.