A listener noticed fugacious on a sign at the Orchid House at the San Diego Zoo, where the botanical label refers to flowers that last only briefly, sometimes just a day. The adjective also describes anything passing quickly, including a sudden shift in mood. It comes from Latin fugere, “to flee,” the same root in “fleeting” words like fugitive, refuge, and subterfuge. The musical term fugue also carries that idea of flight or pursuit. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Fugacious Means Blooming Only Briefly or Fleeting”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
We heard the other day from listener Jeff Sanchez. He was visiting the orchid house at the San Diego Zoo here, and he came across a word that tickled his fancy. And that word is fugacious.
Fugacious.
Yeah, do you know this word, Grant? I didn’t know it. It’s spelled F-U-G-A-C-I-O-U-S, fugacious. And botanists use the word fugacious to mean blooming only briefly or blooming just for a day. And so you might also say that someone’s mood is fugacious. You know, you have a toddler who’s screaming and upset, and then he’s completely captivated by a new toy. His mood was fugacious.
And what’s so exciting to me is that this word just unfolds and explains itself as soon as you see the Latin root, because fugacious comes from the Latin fugere, meaning to flee. And so it’s related to the person who flees. Fugitive.
Fugitive.
The place to which you go fleeing back. Refuge. And it’s also kin to the musical term fugue, which literally means fleeing or a flight. And the reason is that a fugue starts with one or two voices or instruments doing a theme, and then they’re followed by other ones in the musical work. And so it’s as if they’re in effect being chased by all the other instruments or voices.
So the word is fugacious, appearing only briefly. Who knew? Now we all do. Thank you, Jeff.
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