Whimsicalities

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The qualities of being fanciful or capricious may evoke both light-heartedness and unpredictability in behavior and ideas
2. These traits reflect an inclination toward playful imagination and often generate quirky or fanciful thoughts or actions
3. The manifestation of playful unpredictability is often characterized by fanciful imaginings and an enjoyable sense of spontaneity

Etymology: The plural "whimsicalities" is simply the plural of "whimsicality," a noun for quirky, fanciful behaviour. Its ingredients are older than the noun itself: "whimsical" came first, formed from "whim," a word of uncertain earlier origin that meant a sudden fancy or caprice, and "whimsical" added the adjective-making suffix "-ical" to describe someone full of such notions. The noun "whimsicality" was then made by attaching the suffix "-ity," which turns adjectives into nouns of quality, so that "whimsicality" names the state of being whimsical. The plural form follows the usual pattern for nouns ending in "-ity," changing the "y" to "ies." It is used when a writer wants to point to several separate fanciful acts or traits rather than the general quality. A reader meeting it in a sentence is therefore seeing a stack of three ordinary English parts: "whim," "-ical," and "-ity."

Synonyms: fancifulness, quirkiness, eccentricity, capriciousness, playfulness

Antonyms: seriousness, solemnity, gravity, steadiness, conformity