flüchtiger

Flüchtiger is a German noun meaning a person who flees or is on the run, typically in a legal or criminal context. The standard masculine form is der Flüchtige, with die Flüchtige for feminine and die Flüchtigen for the plural. It is used in news reports, police statements, and legal texts to refer to someone evading pursuit or capture. The term should not be confused with Flüchtling, which denotes a refugee seeking asylum, whereas a Flüchtiger has fled from authorities or danger but may not have sought asylum.

As an adjective, flüchtig means fleeting, temporary, or quickly disappearing. In science and everyday language, it can describe volatile substances that readily vaporize; in such contexts one often says flüchtige Substanz rather than using the noun Flüchtiger. The adjective also appears in expressions like eine flüchtige Erinnerung, referring to something that is soon forgotten or quickly passed.

Etymology and related terms: Flüchtiger is formed from fliehen “to flee” with a suffix that creates an agent noun, paralleling other terms like Flucht (flight) and Flüchtling (refugee). Related concepts include Flüchtigkeit (fleetingness) and flüchtig as a broader descriptor for impermanent or unstable phenomena. The word is widely understood in German-language contexts and varies in gender and number according to the noun it describes or its use as an adjective.