fugue

[fyoog]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR fugue ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

Music. a polyphonic composition based upon one, two, or more themes, which are enunciated by several voices or parts in turn, subjected to contrapuntal treatment, and gradually built up into a complex form having somewhat distinct divisions or stages of development and a marked climax at the end.

Psychiatry. a period during which a person suffers from loss of memory, often begins a new life, and, upon recovery, remembers nothing of the amnesic phase.

Origin of fugue

1590–1600; < French < Italian fuga < Latin: flight

Related formsfugue·like, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for fugue

exodus, inattention, stupor, blackout, powder, lam, escapement, beat, spring, getaway, break, breakout, exit, slip, escape, retreat, out, retreating, nirvana, abstraction

Examples from the Web for fugue

Contemporary Examples of fugue

Research has shown that a fugue state may be induced by intensely emotional or stressful events.
Transient Global Amnesia: What Total Memory Loss Is Like
Dr. Anand Veeravagu, MD
July 28, 2013
Green, however, said: “They can no more be separated than the voices of a fugue.”
Halloween Read: Thomas Browne’s Eerie Premonition of His Burial
Stefan Beck
October 30, 2012
The guy showed up with a giant bottle of OxyContin that he had stolen from his mother and I slipped right back into a fugue state.
Confessions of a Pill Head
Joshua Lyon
July 10, 2009

Historical Examples of fugue

And now it was no longer a fugue of sounds—it was a fugue of all sensations.
Audrey Craven
May Sinclair
She doesn't know a fugue from a bass viol, and she never hesitates to say so.
The Dominant Strain
Anna Chapin Ray
The pianist made no sign, having reached the fugue following the prelude.
Melomaniacs
James Huneker
No, Willis never knew any music, and yet he had a good taste, and loved a fugue.
The Nebuly Coat
John Meade Falkner
So should the passion-music close, and not with fugue of praise and triumph like an oratorio.
The Standard Oratorios
George P. Upton

British Dictionary definitions for fugue

fugue

noun

a musical form consisting essentially of a theme repeated a fifth above or a fourth below the continuing first statement

psychiatry a dreamlike altered state of consciousness, lasting from a few hours to several days, during which a person loses his or her memory for his or her previous life and often wanders away from home

Derived Formsfuguelike, adjective

Word Origin for fugue

C16: from French, from Italian fuga, from Latin: a running away, flight

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for fugue

1590s, fuge, from Italian fuga "ardor," literally "flight," from Latin fuga "act of fleeing," from fugere "to flee" (see fugitive). Current spelling (1660s) is from the French version of the Italian word.

A Fugue is a composition founded upon one subject, announced at first in one part alone, and subsequently imitated by all the other parts in turn, according to certain general principles to be hereafter explained. The name is derived from the Latin word fuga, a flight, from the idea that one part starts on its course alone, and that those which enter later are pursuing it. ["Fugue," Ebenezer Prout, 1891]

fugue in Medicine

fugue

[fyōōg]

n.

A pathological amnesiac condition that may persist for several months and usually results from severe mental stress, in which one is apparently conscious of one's actions but has no recollection of them after returning to a normal state.