fickle

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɪk.əl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪkəl

From Middle English fikil, fikel, from Old English ficol (“fickle, cunning, tricky, deceitful”), equivalent to fike +‎ -le. More at fike.

fickle (comparative fickler or more fickle, superlative ficklest or most fickle)

1. Quick to change one’s opinion or allegiance; insincere; not loyal or reliable.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v], page 69:

     O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee fickle, / If thou art fickle, what doſt thou with him / That is renown'd for faith? be fickle Fortune: / For then I hope thou wilt not keepe him long, / But ſend him backe.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXVI, page 43:

     Still onward winds the dreary way;
     ⁠I with it; for I long to prove
     ⁠No lapse of moons can canker Love,
     Whatever fickle tongues may say.

   • 2010, James Murphy (lyrics and music), “Home”, in This Is Happening, performed by LCD Soundsystem:

     As night has such a local ring / And love and rock are fickle things

2. (figurative) Changeable.
   • 2014, Paul Salopek, Blessed. Cursed. Claimed., National Geographic (December 2014)

     To the south, the vast geometrical deserts of Arabian nomads, a redoubt of feral movement, of fickle winds, of open space, of saddle leather—home to the wild Bedouin tribes.

From Middle English fikelen, from fikel (“fickle”); see above. Cognate with Low German fikkelen (“to deceive, flatter”), German ficklen, ficheln (“to deceive, flatter”).

fickle (third-person singular simple present fickles, present participle fickling, simple past and past participle fickled)

1. (transitive) To deceive, flatter.
2. (transitive, UK dialectal) To puzzle, perplex, nonplus.

• Fickel