Fugitive

How to spell fugitive

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce fugitive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fugitive mean?

1. nounA person who is running away or hiding, usually from the law or from capture.
2. adjectiveLasting only a very short time; quick to vanish or escape.

Fugitive in a sentence

• noun

  The police tracked the fugitive across three counties before the arrest.

• adjective

  She caught only a fugitive glimpse of the deer before it bounded into the trees.

• noun

  As a wanted fugitive, he avoided airports and used only cash.

• adjective

  The perfume left a fugitive trace in the hallway that faded within minutes.

Where does fugitive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin fugitivus, meaning 'one who flees' or 'runaway', which was built on the verb fugere, literally 'to flee' or 'to run away'. The same fugere root supplies a surprising family of English words, including 'refuge' (a place you flee to), 'refugee', and even 'centrifugal' (fleeing from the centre). English borrowed fugitive through Old French in the 1300s, first as an adjective describing something or someone fleeing, and then as a noun for a person on the run. Alongside the runaway sense, the word kept a quieter, more literary meaning of 'fleeting' or 'short-lived', since something that flees does not stay long. The spelling stays close to its Latin root, with the soft 'g' before 'i' and the unstressed middle vowel that is easy to misjudge when writing it from memory.

How the word is built

• fug- (from Latin fugere: to flee)
• -itive (suffix forming a noun or adjective)