fugue

Forms

fugue f (plural fugues)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian fuga (“flight; fugue”), a musical term in Italian since the 16th century, earlier “flight” and “sudden departure” (14th century, Dante).^[2][3][4] The Italian word is from Latin fuga (“flight”), from fugiō (“to flee”).^[2][3][5] The musical name comes from the impression that the voices flee from and chase one another.^[6][4] The same Latin word had been inherited as Old French fue “flight” (12th century), which died out,^[3] and its doublet fougue comes from the inherited Italian cognate.^[1]

The sense “running away” (1728) is either a new borrowing of the Italian word in its first sense, as Bloch and Wartburg hold, or a development of the musical sense, as the FEW holds.^[2][7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An isolated fugue “flight” is found at the end of the 13th century, in a French translation of a Latin chronicle written by an Italian.^[2][3] The word proper is recorded in 1598, when Philippe de Marnix writes of a fugue musicalle.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Until the end of the 17th century fugue named what is now called a canon².^[5] It then became the name of the developed contrapuntal form, with its subject, answer, exposition and stretto.^[2][8]

The sense of a short flight from home was taken up in the 18th century: Marivaux has faisons une petite fugue in 1728, and Bloch and Wartburg date the new borrowing from Italian to Voltaire in 1775.^[2][4][9] In psychopathology it names an impulsive, morbid abandonment of one's home (1901 according to Rey, in Larousse in 1930).^[3][9][10] It is now the usual word for a child or teenager who runs away from home, with the derivatives fugueur (1930) and fuguer (about 1960).^[3][2]

English borrowed the musical term from Italian in the 1590s as fuge; the current spelling (1660s) follows the French form.^[11]

Timeline

• end of the 13th century – An isolated fugue “flight” appears in a translated chronicle.^[2]
• 1590s – English borrows the musical term from Italian.^[11]
• 1598 – Marnix writes fugue musicalle.^[2][5]
• 1680 – Contre-fugue is recorded.^[3]
• 1728 – Marivaux uses it for a brief flight.^[2][8]
• 1775 – Voltaire uses it in the sense “flight”.^[4][9]
• 1803 – The musical verb fuguer appears.^[3]
• 1817 – The adjective fugué is recorded.^[3]
• 1901 – It enters psychopathology.^[3]
• 1930 – Larousse records fugueur.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (music) A fugue: a contrapuntal composition in which the voices enter one after another on the same theme, in strict imitation.^[8][2][9]
2. (music) The writing of fugues, as a subject of study.^[8]
3. A running away for a time from the place where one lives, especially by a child or teenager: faire une fugue.^[8][3]
4. (psychopathology) An impulsive, morbid flight from one's home.^[9][10][3]

Word family

• fuguer
• fuguiste
• fugueur
• fugué
• fuguette
• contre-fugue

Related words

• fuir
• fougue
• Latin fuga
• English fugue

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
7. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 3, 836b
8. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
11. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com