different between fugacious vs ephemeral

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fug?cius, comparative of fug?citer (“evasively, fleetingly”), from fug?x (“transitory, fleeting”), from fugi? (“I flee”).

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /fju???e?.??s/

Adjective

fugacious (comparative more fugacious, superlative most fugacious)

1. Fleeting, fading quickly, transient.
   • 1906, O. Henry, "The Furnished Room", in The Four Million:

     Restless, shifting, fugacious as time itself is a certain vast bulk of the population of the red brick district of the lower West Side. Homeless, they have a hundred homes.

   • 2011, Michael Feeney Callan, Robert Redford: The Biography, Alfred A. Knopf (2011), ?ISBN, page xvii:

     It may be that Redford's fugacious nature is not so mysterious, that it is studded in the artwork of the labs and the very stones of Sundance.

Derived terms

• fugaciously
• fugaciousness

Related terms

• fugacity
• fugue
• fugitive

Translations

English

Etymology

From New Latin ephemerus, from Ancient Greek ???????? (eph?meros), the more common form of ????????? (eph?mérios, “of, for, or during the day, living or lasting but for a day, short-lived, temporary”), from ??? (epí, “on”) + ????? (h?méra, “day”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??f?.m?.??l/, /??f?.m?.??l/
• Rhymes: -???l

Noun

ephemeral (plural ephemerals)

1. Something which lasts for a short period of time.

   Synonym: ephemeron

Derived terms

• spring ephemeral

Adjective

ephemeral (comparative more ephemeral, superlative most ephemeral)

1. Lasting for a short period of time.

   Synonyms: temporary, transitory, fleeting, evanescent, momentary, short-lived, short, volatile; see also Thesaurus:ephemeral

   Antonyms: permanent, eternal, everlasting, timeless

   • 1821-1822, Vicesimus Knox, Remarks on the tendency of certain Clauses in a Bill now pending in Parliament to degrade Grammar Schools

     Esteem, lasting esteem, the esteem of good men, like himself, will be his reward, when the gale of ephemeral popularity shall have gradually subsided.

   • 1853, James Stephen, Lecture on the right use of Books

     sentences not of ephemeral, but of eternal, efficacy
2. (biology) Existing for only one day, as with some flowers, insects, and diseases.
3. (geology, of a body of water) Usually dry, but filling with water for brief periods during and after precipitation.
   • 1986, W.H. Raymond, "Clinoptilolite Deposit in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, U.S.A.", in Y?ichi Murakami et al. (editors), New Developments in Zeolite Science and Technology (conference proceedings), Elsevier, ?ISBN, page 80:

     The graben constitutes a depositional basin and a topographic low, underlain by Cretaceous shales, in which volcanic debris accumulated in ephemeral lakes and streams in Oligocene and early Miocene time.

Derived terms

• ephemerally

Related terms

• ephemera
• ephemeron
• ephemerality
• hemeral

Translations

Further reading

• ephemeral in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ephemeral in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• ephemeral on Wikipedia.Wikipedia