Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Correspondence (1933-1967)

Letter ID: 86

Sri Aurobindo — Nahar, Prithwi Singh

October 1, 1943

Ineffugable

«Infinity imposes itself upon the appearances of the finite by its ineffugable self-existence.» (The Life Divine , Vol.I, p. 10)

Ineffugable is a new word, like dynamis, introduced into the English language by Sri Aurobindo. It means inescapable, inevitable, not to be avoided. A similar word was used by Blount in 1656 with slight change of form – ineffugible. Etymologically it is an adaptation of the Latin ineffugibilis, from effugere, to flee from, avoid. (Vide, Oxford English Dictionary.)

Ineffugible is the correct formation, but it has not force or power of suggestive sound in it. The a in ineffugable has been brought in by illegitimate analogy from word like «fugacious», Latin fugare, because it sounds better and is forcible.