A fickle person changes his mind frequently.
Voluble is an adjective that refers to that which lacks constancy or that easily turns towards its surroundings. The term comes from the Latin word volubĭlis .
The notion is usually linked to the person who changes their opinion, behavior , attitude or activity frequently . Take the case of a young man who, one day, maintains that Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the world. The next day, Lionel Messi scores two goals in a match: the boy then begins to say that the best footballer is the Argentine. A week later, a great performance by Neymar makes him change his mind again. Now, for this individual, the Brazilian player is the best on the planet. As you can see, the young man is fickle.
fickle people
When change of mind occurs on more serious issues, such as ideals and convictions regarding morality and justice, fickleness becomes a very worrying trait . If a person who has been defending animal rights for some time allows himself to be convinced in a conversation of the need to put a muzzle on his dog and take him for a walk on a leash, it means that he has a serious problem of insecurity and incoherence that must be addressed before harm her environment or herself.
A fickle being is, in other words, insecure, indecisive and overly impressionable , all undesirable and potentially dangerous characteristics. It is very important to explore one's own ideas , contrast them and look for new ones if necessary, to become firm people with unwavering values, without fear of other people's opinions, but open to them to give rise to dialogue and, in the best of cases, , to grow and reach new heights on an intellectual level.
Other uses of the term
The adjective can even be applied to groups of human beings or to abstract issues.
A basketball team will be classified as fickle if it fails to maintain a line of play and a certain level over the course of the matches. A market, on the other hand, can be called fickle if its variables change abruptly and continuously.
Hops are a plant with a fickle stem.
fickle stem
In the field of botany , the idea of fickle refers to the stem that, in its growth , becomes knotted to some element.
Plants with fickle stems, known as guide plants or guide plants , require a module for their development, since these stems cannot stand on their own. An example of a plant with a voluble stem is hops , which are used for the production of beer.
An etymological journey
Taking the previous meanings into account, let's look at the information regarding the etymology of the term fickle . This adjective has its origin in the Latin word volubilis ("that rotates or can do so, that can twist, that rolls according to circumstances, changing, mutable"), and this, in turn, is formed with the union of the verb will return ( «to go around, to deviate, to turn «) and the possibility suffix -bilis (which in our language we find as -ble ).
For its part, the Latin verb Volvere is associated with the Indo-European root - wel ("to roll up, return "), which also allows the formation of the Latin term valva (revolving leaf of a door). Continuing along this path we finally find the term vulva ("vagina", alluding to the idea of an organ capable of enveloping) and vallis ("area surrounded or enveloped by mountains"), which led to valley .
It is very interesting to discover the large number of words that are related to fickle, either because they coincide in part of their meaning or because they have common roots. In fact, the list goes on if we focus on the Indo-European root – wel , as it is found in the skeleton of many Greek terms that also refer to the ideas of “wrapping” or “turning”. Given that in Greek the initial wau disappears and in some cases an aspiration remains, it is understandable that words such as elytro and helix have emerged, with the root transformed into el- or hel- .