fugacious

American  

[fyoo-gey-shuhs] / fyuˈgeɪ ʃəs /

adjective

1. fleeting; transient.

   a sensational story with but a fugacious claim on the public's attention.

2. Botany. falling or fading early.

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fugacious British  

/ fjuːˈɡeɪʃəs /

adjective

1. passing quickly away; transitory; fleeting

2. botany lasting for only a short time

   fugacious petals

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Other Word Forms

• fugaciously adverb
• fugaciousness noun
• fugacity noun

Etymology

Origin of fugacious

1625–35; < Latin fugāci- (stem of fugāx apt to flee, fleet, derivative of fugere to flee + -ous

Explanation

Something that's fugacious lasts a very short time. You say you'll wear your trendy new jeans for years but the truth is, their style is so fugacious you'll feel silly in them long before they wear out. When you describe something that passes quickly, or that's ephemeral and fleeting, you can use the adjective fugacious. When you live in Maine, the summer seems fugacious, and after looking forward all year to your senior prom, you'll find the night so fugacious that it seems to last only an hour. The origin can be traced back to the Latin word fugax, which means "apt to flee, or timid."

Example Sentences

The Reporter, on the other hand, calls it "a fugacious bit of whimsy that can only be judged minor Woody Allen".

From The Guardian • Jul. 18, 2014

P. 3-5 cm. even bay brick-red when moist; g. emarginate, cinnamon with a fugacious tinge of flesh-colour violet; s. 4-5 cm. clavate, very fibrillose, one colour, becoming pale; sp.

From European Fungus Flora: Agaricaceae by Massee, George

Sporangia fasciculate, confluent on a persistent hypothallus, dark fuscous; peridia very fugacious; stipes united at the base, erect, furcate; spores large, brown, globose.

From The North American Slime-Moulds A Descriptive List of All Species of Myxomycetes Hitherto Reported from the Continent of North America, with Notes on Some Extra-Limital Species by MacBride, Thomas H. (Thomas Huston)

Seeds globose or angled.—Stems terete, from coated bulbs, with few plicate leaves, and few fugacious flowers from 2-bracted spathes.

From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa

P. 5-9 cm. oblique or subcircular, hard, whitish with brownish spot-like squamules, flesh white then yellowish; g. decur. not anastomosing behind, white tinged yellow; s. 2-3 cm. sublateral, ring fugacious, torn; sp.

From European Fungus Flora: Agaricaceae by Massee, George