Make Your Point: FINIFUGAL

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pronounce FINIFUGAL:

FINN ih FYOO gull

connect this word to others:

Remember the Sugar Ray song "When It's Over"? "When it's over, that's the time I've fallen in love again"? That's a finifugal song.

How about that Deep Blue Something song "Breakfast at Tiffany's"? That's a finifugal song, too: "It's plain to see we're over, and I hate when things are over."

Finifugal people hate endings and goodbyes. They hate it when a good book ends. They hate it when summer is over. If it ends, they hate it.

Let's crack the word finifugal in half to get the Latin fīnis, meaning "end or boundary;" and fuga, meaning "flight."

Now we can see how finifugal belongs to a family of words about endings, like finish, final, finite, confines, and a_ infin____(two words, meaning "forever: to the point of never ending").

And we can see how it belongs to a family of words about flight or fleeing, like refuge, fugitive, and fug___ous ("lasting for only a short time, as if eager to flee or fly away").

Can you recall those terms with the blanks?

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

Our word "finifugal" has Latin bits that literally mean "fleeing from the end (of things)."

It was invented, we think, by a writer named Lionel Arthur Tollemache, who wrote in an 1883 journal article: "In modern as well as in ancient times, the finifugal tendency... is apparent." Meaning, I think, "People always hate it when things end, and they try to avoid endings."

The word is still very rare, recognized by only a few dictionaries. But people love it and often celebrate it in online lists of rare words for specific emotions. If enough people use it often enough, we'll see it appear in more dictionaries.

So, if you want to, describe your feelings or your entire personality as finifugal if you're hating it when things end, whether those things are parties, relationships, very good books, or anything else.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Most likely an adjective: "Humans are finifugal creatures."

Also a noun, the countable kind, meaning "a person who shuns endings or goodbyes:" "She's a finifugal."

Other forms:

None are in common use. I mean, not even "finifugal" is in common use!

But you could certainly create and use other forms, following the patterns set by words like "fugal" and "centrifugal."

We could have a verb, "finifuge," meaning "to shun the ending of something," with the other forms being "finifuged" and "finifuging," as in "Sugar Ray finifuges all through the song 'When It's Over.'"

"Finifuge" can be a noun as well for a person who hates it when things are over. (Some writers already do this, but my ears hate it.)

For a noun for the idea, the feeling, or the habit, how about "finifugacity"?

how to use it:

Pick the quirky, ultra-rare word "finifugal" to describe people and things that resist, prolong, or just hate endings. But make sure you gloss it for your readers: say explicitly what it means. Or at least make sure your context clarifies the meaning.

You might talk about finifugal feelings, tendencies, habits, moods, tactics and so on.

You might also use "finifugal" as a noun and refer to a person as a finifugal, but that strikes my ears as weird. Here's the poet Vani Kabir: "you were a finifugal at heart... but end makes it way through the cracks."

A word of caution! People love to talk about the word "finifugal," but they hardly ever use it in real contexts. It's a unicorn. Although I've scraped up a few real examples for you below, they're really hard to find in print. To be honest, both of the ones I'm citing occur in a context where the author is really just talking about the word "finifugal."

Even if you don't plan on using "finifugal" yourself, I encourage you to get playful with that suffix, -fugal (meaning "hating, shunning, avoiding, chasing away, leading away"). It's a fun alternative to -phobic ("hating or fearing") when you want to invent words. Maybe you're heliofugal: a sunshine-shunner, like me. Maybe you're cynofugal: a dog-shunner. You see a dog coming, and you bolt in the opposite direction.

While we're at it, have fun with -fugal's opposite, -tropic, meaning "approaching, running toward, or turning toward," a fun alternative to the more familiar -manic ("loving"). Do you love the sun, leaning toward it out of instinct, like a plant? You're heliotropic. Love dogs? You're cynotropic. Just to be clear, not all of these words can be found in dictionaries. But they make sense, they follow the rules in English for coining words, and if you use them carefully, your listeners will understand them.

examples:

"The finifugal tendency is everywhere, from those who hate to break off relationships, to some, one hears, who even put off finishing the books they are writing."
— Steven Poole, A Word for Every Day of the Year, 2019

"Many things in life deserve being finifugal about: the last twenty pages of a good book, a special meal that someone has just spent hours preparing for you, a slow walk in a light rain."
— Ammon Shea, Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages, 2008

has this page helped you understand "finifugal"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "finifugal" without saying "hating endings" or "hating goodbyes."

try it out:

Are you a finifugal partygoer? Do you hate those goodbyes as you take off at the end of a party? Do you hate them so much that you skirt them entirely, dipping out unannounced and unceremoniously? (Some people call that maneuver an "Irish goodbye" or "French leave.") Or, do you prefer the polite social custom of letting everyone know that you're leaving, especially the host? Either way, why?

If you don't do parties (maybe you're party-fugal), then talk about the last time you felt a bit of finifugacity as you finished a book, completed a project, or reached the end of an academic year or program.

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "It Sounds Wiser in Latin."

Longtime readers will recognize this game. It's back, with fresh new (okay, mostly ancient) Latin idioms!

Try matching a handful of Latin phrases to their English translations. If you need some clues, I'll provide them in the form of definitions of related English words. For example, the clue "Something anguine reminds you of a snake" could help you determine that "Latet anguis in herba" means "A snake hides in the grass."

You can see the answers by scrolling to the bottom of the issue.

Try these today:

1. Actis ut credam facis.
2. Cogitationes posteriores sunt saniores.
3. Consuetudinis magna vis est.
4. Ex granis fit acervus.
5. Homines quod volunt credunt.

A. Actions (not words) make you trustworthy.
B. All contributions (however small) are of use.
C. Great is the power of habit.
D. Men believe what they want to.
E. Second thoughts are best.

To peek at the clues, follow the links:

1. To cogitate is to...
2. Someone magnanimous has a...
3. Bonhomie is literally...

review this word:

1. The precise opposite of FINIFUGAL would be FINITROPIC, meaning

A. having a bright, citrussy taste.
B. leaning toward, or embracive of, endings.
C. having fins or wings on both sides of the body.

2. Seth Stevenson explained society's finifugal tendencies: "_____."

A. A lot of people have a sense that there are tax incentives for putting solar panels on your roof or government subsidies that are going to help you pay for it

B. We all agree it's fun to say hello. A hello has the bright promise of a beginning. It's the perfect occasion to express your genuine pleasure at a friend's arrival. But who among us enjoys saying goodbye? None among us! Not those leaving, and not those left behind

C. We have arms control treaties here on Earth, but they don't seem to be slowing down the arms race that much. As for up in space, there's been a United Nation's Outer Space Treaty since 1967. Among other things, it asserts that space belongs to all of humanity, and it prohibits stationing nuclear weapons in orbit or on the moon

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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