zbieg

Zbieg is a Polish noun used primarily to denote a person who has escaped from custody or confinement, i.e., a fugitive or escapee. In legal, police, and media usage it describes someone who has fled from prison, detention, military service, or another form of custody. The term emphasizes the act of fleeing rather than the legal status of the person, and it is commonly found in reports, police descriptions, and historical accounts.

In addition to its primary sense, zbieg can refer to a concept in which several events or factors come together unexpectedly. In this usage, the expression zbieg okoliczności or zbiegi zdarzeń conveys a coincidence or confluence of circumstances that leads to a particular outcome. This figurative sense is common in formal and literary Polish.

Etymology and related forms are linked to the verb zbiec, meaning to flee or escape, with the noun form indicating a person or the notion of convergence, depending on context. The word is used across different registers, from official records to journalistic prose, and its exact form may vary with grammatical case and number.

See also: uciekieniec (less common), zbieżność (concurrence or alignment), zbiegi okoliczności (coincidence of circumstances).