capriccio

plural capriccios · plural capricci

1. A sudden and unexpected or fantastic motion; a caper; a gambol; a prank, a trick.

   She used to smile at my capriccios; and once she kissed me—actually.

   1873, Charles Reade, chapter VII, in A Simpleton: A Story of the Day […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: caper, curvet, gag, gambade, high jinks, lark, marlock, monkeyshine

2. A fantastical thing or work.

   Will this Capricio hold in thee, art ſure?

   c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 239, column 2

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   If any Man for that reaſon has an Inclination to divert himſelf, and Sail with me round the Globe, to ſuperviſe almoſt all the Conditions of Humane Life, without being infected with the Vanities, and Vices that attend such a Whimſical Perambulation; let him follow me, who am going to Relate it in a Stile, and Language, proper to the Variety of the Subject: For as the Caprichio came Naturally into my Pericranium, I am reſolv’d to purſue it through Thick and Thin, to enlarge my Capacity for a Man of Buſineſs.

   1700, Tom Brown, Amusements Serious and Comical, calculated for the Meridian of London, page 10

   “Poor fellow!” thought Vivian, “I fear, with all thy wit and pleasantry, thou art, after all, but one of those capriccios which Nature sometimes indulges in, merely to show how superior is her accustomed order to eccentricities, even accompanied with rare powers.”

   1827, [Benjamin Disraeli], chapter IX, in Vivian Grey, volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, book V, page 174

   Synonyms: caprice, boutade, caprice, conceit, crotchet, delirament, fancy, fangle

3. paintingA type of Renaissance landscape painting that places particular works of architecture in an unusual and often fictional setting.

   Above the drawing-room fireplace there was a painting by Guardi, a capriccio of Venice in a gilt rococo frame […]

   2004, Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN

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   Capricci, far from being decorative images without meaning, probably express the sensation that the world, even though built by man with pretensions of eternity, is instead subjugated to the dominance of time […]

   2014, Ettore Maria Mazzola, “Capricci Capricciosi”, in Lucien Steil, editor, The Architectural Capriccio: Memory, Fantasy and Invention, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., →ISBN, page 385

4. entertainmentA piece of music, usually fairly free in form and of a lively character.

   The stillness returned, save for the little voices of the night—the owl's recitative, the capriccio of the crickets, the concerto of the frogs in the grass.

   1909 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “The Renaissance at Charleroi”, in Roads of Destiny, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC

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   The friar and Matilda had often sung duets together, and had been accustomed to the baron’s chiming in with a stormy capriccio, which was usually charmed into silence by some sudden turn in the witching melodies of Matilda.

   1822, [Thomas Love Peacock], Maid Marian, London: […] T[homas] Hookham […], pages 66–67