Also 7 caprichio, capritio, 7–8 capricio. [a. It. capriccio sudden start, motion, or freak, app. f. capro goat, as if ‘the skip or frisk of a goat’ (in Sp. capricho):—L. type *capriceus. (For the sense cf. CAPRIOLE.)]
1. A sudden sportive or fantastic motion; a prank, trick, caper.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., Addr. 16. The shifts, windings, and unexpected Caprichios of distressed Nature.
1693. Bentley, Atheism, Boyle Lect., v. 9. All the various Machins and Utensils would now and then play odd Pranks and Capricio’s quite contrary to their proper Structures and Designs of the Artificers.
1761. Sterne, Tr. Shandy (1802), I. xxiii. 117. To have … viewed the soul stark naked, watched her loose in her frisks, her gambols, her capricios.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. v. (1865), 267. Magnificent were thy capriccios on this globe of earth, Robert William Elliston!
† 2. = CAPRICE 1. Obs.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. iii. 310. Will this Caprichio hold in thee, art sure?
a. 1634. Chapman, To Pan. In quite oppos’de capriccios.
1686. W. de Britaine, Hum. Prud., § xx. 92. The Capricio’s of Fortune.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., IV. xvi. § 11. A thousand odd Reasons, or Caprichio’s, Men’s Minds are acted by.
1794. Mathias, Purs. Lit. (1798), 379. Another little capriccio of the late Adam Smith.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, Let. v. Folks who … partake of their fantastic capriccios.
3. A thing or work of fancy; = CAPRICE 2.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. iii. 142. [They] looking upon the Plastick Life of Nature as a Figment or Phantastick Capritio.
1824. Heber, Jrnl. (ed. 2), II. xxi. 353. It is a mere capriccio, with no merit except its carving.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, xi. 390. These exquisite little capricci, engraved by Greek artists upon gems.
b. Music. A name variously applied (see Grove s.v.) but usually denoting a composition of lively character, and more or less free in form.
1696. Phillips, Capriccio’s are pieces of Music, Poetry, and Painting, wherein the force of Imagination has better success than observation of the Rules of Art.
1789. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Subj. Painters, 42. Still is that voice, of late so strong, That many a sweet Capriccio sung.
1845. E. Holmes, Mozart, 155. This is not a prelude … but a capriccio to try a piano.
1879. Statham in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 225/1. His next published work, the ‘Capriccio in D minor.’
