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Gene93 Posted 11 years ago
Vocabulary

fleeting (short/brief)

Hello,
Since a friend of mine always uses "fleeting" and I hardly ever use it, I need to ask you, what's wrong with just saying "He made a brief/short/quick reference to his resignation"? For some reason I don't want to use fleeting. Are they not all possible in this sentence, though?
  

Top answer

"short" does not sound right to me. Otherwise, all are fine. it: short reference 6 fleeting reference 9 brief reference19 quick reference 80 CJ

— CalifJim

  • "short" does not sound right to me.
  • Otherwise, all are fine.
  • it: short reference 6 fleeting reference 9 brief reference19 quick reference 80 CJ
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8 Answers
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"short" does not sound right to me. Otherwise, all are fine.

Here are the frequencies found on fraze.it:

short reference 6
fleeting reference 9
brief reference19
quick reference 80

CJ
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I don't even know what "short" is doing on there. I didn't even mean to suggest it. I am sorry, Jim Emotion: sad.
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Oh, Jim, would "He paid me a short visit yesterday" sound odd as well? Should I use something else instead?
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Gene93would "He paid me a short visit yesterday" sound odd as well?
To my ear, "short" works there, as does "brief".

CJ
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To be honest, I am a little worried now. I think I have used it with "visit" and I realize I might have been wrong. Is "short" seldom used in collocation with visit/speech/stay/ etc? How do you use it then? It appears what I have learned so far is wrong.
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Gene93To be honest, I am a little worried now. I think I have used it with "visit" and I realize I might have been wrong. Is "short" seldom used in collocation with visit/speech/stay/ etc?
No, it's fine.
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Is it more natural to hear "a fleeting/brief" visit? Sorry for asking, but don't all of the above refer to the time the speaker needed to make the reference? I am not questioning anyone, but I am just trying to make some sense of it.

Thank you both
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Here are a few comments about how I think of the word fleeting.

It is far less common than words like short, brief, etc.
You could live for a year in Canada and not hear it used in casual conversation.

It often adds a literary
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