Go to 'thermo-' entry Go to 'dino-' entry Go to 'chondro-' entry Go to 'aero-' entry Go to '-logy' entry Go to 'thaumato-' entry Go to 'nano-' entry Go to '-sophy' entry Go to 'bucco-' entry Go to '-ism' entry Go to '-lysis' entry Go to 'galacto-' entry Go to '-anthropy' entry Go to 'pneumo-' entry Go to '-ploitation' entry Go to '-lithic' entry Go to '-sepalous' entry Go to 'onco-' entry Go to '-parous' entry Go to 'dermato-' entry Go to 'multi-' entry Go to 'dodeca-' entry Go to '-zoon' entry Go to 'vermi-' entry Go to 'crystallo-' entry Go to 'biblio-' entry Go to 'eco-' entry Go to 'juxta-' entry Go to 'facio-' entry
Affixes: the building blocks of English
Affixes: the building blocks of English
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-fuge Also -fugal.

An agent that dispels, drives away or eliminates something.

[Latin -fugus, from fugare, to drive away or to put to flight.]

Some terms here are medical: febrifuge, a drug or treatment that reduces or prevents fever; vermifuge, one that removes parasitic worms. A calcifuge (Latin calx, calc-, lime) is a plant that is not suited to soil containing lime, and so is figuratively driven away by it. Derived adjectives are formed in -fugal (febrifugal, vermifugal).

A centrifuge is a rotating device that separates substances; this derives from the related Latin verb fugere, to flee. Two other similarly formed common words are refuge and subterfuge.

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