caprice

A caprice is an impulse that seems to arrive without a reason. English borrowed the word from French caprice, which came from Italian capriccio. The Italian form is traced to caporiccio, a combination of capo, “head,” and riccio, “curly”; the literal image is “curly head.” The explanation connects that image with an old belief that curly hair signaled an unruly, capricious character. English uses include an unpredictable change or disposition, and, by 1891, a brief romance: Oscar Wilde wrote that a caprice lasts longer than a life-long passion.