Virtuous and Vicious

The word cycle comes to us from Ancient Greek’s kyklos, which meant a circle or a wheel. The Greeks also had the same sort of metaphorical meaning we use today, so kyklos could mean either a circular shape or a cycle.

English made the distinction between the two words pretty early on, so today we have a metaphorical, time-based cycle, and a physical shape of a circle.

You’re probably familiar with the term vicious cycle. This phrase has been emblazoned in my mind since childhood, and if you understand the word vicious, you probably have everything you need to understand what a vicious cycle is.

Vicious and vice come to us from the same root. It’s pretty easy to visualize a repeating cycle where vice enters the equation, and makes things worse with every turn of the metaphorical wheel of time. Today, we think of a vice as a moral failing, but the original meaning was more like a fault or a technical failure.

One classic example of a vicious cycle is when you’re in debt, so you borrow money to pay back what you owe… only to owe even more down the road. When that becomes due, you borrow even more money, and before you know it, the amount you’re paying in interest alone becomes your main expense.

I’m certain I heard the term vicious cycle long before I heard about its cousin, the virtuous cycle. Unlike the other type, these cycles are full of virtue—it’s right there in the name!

Virtue derives from the Latin word for man: vir. We’re talking about old-timey manliness here, in the very patriarchal sense where manly means honorable or strong in character. A virtuous cycle, then, is one that is constantly reinforced by good, virtuous things.

If we invert our debt example, we have a virtuous cycle. You invest in important things, which returns cash to you, which you can then reinvest in even more profitable activities. Maybe you invest in your education next, and that helps you earn more income, which you can then reinvest, and so on.

The more you think about it, the more you realize that virtuous and vicious cycles power the modern world.