fugacious

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: fu=ga=cious

CIDE DICTIONARY

fugacious, a. [L. fugax, fugacis, from fugere: cf. F. fugace. See Fugitive.].

•  Flying, or disposed to fly; fleeing away; lasting but a short time; volatile.  [1913 Webster]

  "Much of its possessions is so hid, so fugacious, and of so uncertain purchase."  [1913 Webster]
•  Fleeting; lasting but a short time; -- applied particularly to organs or parts which are short-lived as compared with the life of the individual.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

fugacious, adj. literary fleeting, evanescent, hard to capture or keep.

Derivative

fugaciously adv. fugaciousness n. fugacity n.

Etymology

L fugax fugacis f. fugere flee

THESAURUS

fugacious

brittle, capricious, changeable, corruptible, deciduous, dying, ephemeral, evanescent, fading, fickle, fleeting, flitting, fly-by-night, flying, fragile, frail, fugitive, impermanent, impetuous, impulsive, inconstant, insubstantial, momentary, mortal, mutable, nondurable, nonpermanent, passing, perishable, short-lived, temporal, temporary, transient, transitive, transitory, undurable, unenduring, unstable, volatile

ROGET THESAURUS

fugacious

Transientness

N transience, transientness, evanescence, impermanence, fugacity, caducity, mortality, span, nine days' wonder, bubble, Mayfly, spurt, flash in the pan, temporary arrangement, interregnum, velocity, suddenness, changeableness, transient, transient boarder, transient guest, transient, transitory, transitive, passing, evanescent, fleeting, cursory, short-lived, ephemeral, flying, fugacious, fugitive, shifting, slippery, spasmodic, instantaneous, momentaneous, temporal, temporary, provisional, provisory, deciduous, perishable, mortal, precarious, unstable, insecure, impermanent, brief, quick, brisk, extemporaneous, summary, pressed for time, sudden, momentary, temporarily, pro tempore, for the moment, for a time, awhile, en passant, in transitu, in a short time, soon, briefly, at short notice, on the point of, on the eve of, in articulo, between cup and lip, one's days are numbered, the time is up, here today and gone tomorrow, non semper erit aestas, eheu! fugaces labuntur anni, sic transit gloria mundi, a schoolboy's tale, the wonder of the hour!, dum loquimur fugerit invidia aetas, fugit hora, all that is transitory is but an illusion.