fugax

Forms

fugāx (genitive fugācis, comparative fugācior, superlative fugācissimus, adverb fugāciter); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin fuga (“flight”) + -āx,^[2] the adjective of tendency to fugiō (“to flee”).^[1][3] The verb goes back to Proto-Italic *fugiō and Proto-Indo-European *bʰewg- (“to flee”).^[3] Cognate with Ancient Greek φεύγω (pheúgō, “to flee”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[3] whose Persa has it in a string of insults for a slave: “glutton, thief, runaway”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means apt to run away, evasive or elusive: of runaway slaves, of the fruit that retreats from Tantalus in Ovid, and with a genitive of a person who avoids something.^[2] In poetry it is fleeing or speeding away, swift, as Horace's “fleeting years” and his “hurrying water”.^[2][4] Seneca uses it of short-lived pleasure, “quickly over, transient”.^[2]

In medieval texts it is a runaway serf.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a runaway slave.^[2][3][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace of the fleeting years.^[2][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca of transient pleasure.^[2][6]
• Middle Ages – Of a runaway serf.^[5]
• 1630s – Its stem gives English fugacious.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Prone to run away, elusive, fugitive; of slaves, runaway.^[2][4]
2. Avoiding (with genitive).^[2][1]
3. Fleeing, swift; of time, fleeting.^[2][4][1]
4. Quickly over, transient.^[2][1]
5. (Medieval Latin) Of a serf, runaway.^[5]

Word family

• fugācitās

Related words

• fugiō
• fuga
• English fugacious

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com