fugue

See also: fugué

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French fugue, from Italian fuga (“flight, ardor”), from Latin fuga (“act of fleeing”), from fugiō (“to flee”); compare Ancient Greek φυγή (phugḗ). Apparently from the metaphor that the first part starts alone on its course, and is pursued by later parts. Doublet of fuga.

Pronunciation

• (MLE) IPA^(key): /fyɡ/
• IPA^(key): /fjuːɡ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːɡ

Noun

fugue (plural fugues)

1. (music) A contrapuntal piece of music wherein a particular melody is played in a number of voices, each voice introduced in turn by playing the melody.

   Synonym: fuga (dated)

2. Anything in literature, poetry, film, painting, etc., that resembles a fugue in structure or in its elaborate complexity and formality.
   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 175:

     Jacobsen's theory about the empty storehouse is still valid, for a myth never has one meaning only; a myth is a polyphonic fugue of many voices.

3. (psychiatry) A fugue state.

Derived terms

• counterfugue
• double fugue
• fugal
• fuguelike
• fuguist
• mirror fugue

Related terms

• fugacious
• fugue state

Translations

piece of music

• Arabic: فُوغَا f (fūḡā), فُوغَا f (fūgā)
• Armenian: ֆուգա (hy) (fuga)
• Azerbaijani: fuqa
• Belarusian: фуга f (fuha)
• Bulgarian: фуга (bg) f (fuga)
• Catalan: fuga (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 賦格 / 赋格 (zh) (fùgé)

• Czech: fuga (cs) f
• Danish: fuga c
• Dutch: fuga (nl) m or f
• Esperanto: fugo
• Estonian: fuuga
• Finnish: fuuga (fi)
• French: fugue (fr) f
• Friulian: fughe f
• Georgian: ფუგა (puga)
• German: Fuge (de) f
• Greek: φούγκα (el) f (foúgka), φυγή (el) f (fygí)
• Hebrew: פוּגָה (he)
• Hungarian: fúga (hu)
• Icelandic: fúga f
• Ido: fugo (io)
• Italian: fuga (it) f
• Japanese: 遁走曲 (とんそうきょく, tonsōkyoku), フーガ (fūga)
• Korean: 푸가 (puga)
• Latin: contrāpunctus m
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: fuga
• Macedonian: фуга f (fuga)
• Occitan: fuga f
• Persian: فوگ (fug)
• Piedmontese: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: fuga (pl) f
• Portuguese: fuga (pt) f
• Romanian: fugă (ro) f
• Russian: фу́га (ru) f (fúga)
• Slovak: fúga
• Slovene: fuga f
• Spanish: fuga (es) f
• Swedish: fuga (sv) c
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: füg (tr)
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Uzbek: fuga (uz)
• Vietnamese: tẩu pháp
• Walloon: please add this translation if you can

anything in literature, poetry, film, painting, etc., that resembles a fugue in structure or complexity

• German: Fuge (de) f
• Greek: φυγή (el) f (fygí)
• Polish: fuga (pl) f
• Russian: фу́га (ru) f (fúga)
• Slovene: fuga f

Verb

fugue (third-person singular simple present fugues, present participle fuguing, simple past and past participle fugued)

1. To improvise, in singing, by introducing vocal ornamentation to fill gaps etc.
2. (intransitive) To spend time in a dissociative fugue state.
   • 2014, Richard D. Dalrymple, Fugue, page 33:

     And most of them women, and these only stayed in a fugue state for a relatively short time, like a couple of hours or a couple of days. As far as we know Malenov fugued for close to twenty years.

   • 2021, Robin Wasserman, Mother Daughter Widow Wife, page 87:

     Fugue states can have phases—it's possible she fugued from the start, and only woke to what was happening on that bus.

See also

• fugue on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fyk/

Noun

fugue f (plural fugues, diminutive fugueje n)

1. (medicine) a fugue state

See also

• dissociatieve fugue

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fyɡ/
• Homophones: fuguent, fugues

Etymology 1

Ca. 1600, borrowed in the musical sense from Italian fuga, itself a borrowing from Latin fuga. Doublet of fougue (from the inherited Italian cognate). The sense “flight” (18th c.) may be a new borrowing from the Italian.

Noun

fugue f (plural fugues)

1. (music) fugue
2. (informal) flight, act of running away, especially from home, elopement

   Synonym: fuite

Derived terms

• fuguer
• fuguiste

Related terms

• fuir

Descendants

• → English: fugue
• → Persian: فوگ (fug)
• → Turkish: füg

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

fugue

1. inflection of fuguer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “fugue”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Spanish

Verb

fugue

1. inflection of fugar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative