Fugacious

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /fjuːˈɡeɪ.ʃəs/

Origin

From Latin fugācius, comparative of fugāciter ("evasively, fleetingly"), from fugāx ("transitory, fleeting"), from fugiō ("I flee").

Full definition of fugacious

Adjective

1. Fleeting, fading quickly, transient.
• 1906, O. Henry, "", in The Four Million:Restless, shifting, fugacious as time itself is a certain vast bulk of the population of the red brick district of the lower West Side. Homeless, they have a hundred homes.
• 1916, George Edmund De Schweinitz, Diseases of the Eye, page 589:Watering of the eye, conjunctival congestion, distinct catarrhal conjunctivitis, and deep-seated scleral congestions, sometimes fugacious, and often accompanied by intense headache
• 2011, Michael Feeney Callan, Robert Redford: The Biography, Alfred A. Knopf (2011), ISBN 9780307272973, page xvii:It may be that Redford's fugacious nature is not so mysterious, that it is studded in the artwork of the labs and the very stones of Sundance.

Derived terms

• fugaciously
• fugaciousness

Related terms

• fugacity
• fugue