  Fundamental electronic principles underlying all transition metal compounds
are the symmetry and filling of the $d$-electron orbitals and the influence of
this filling on structural configurations and responses. Here we use a
sensitive local structural technique, x-ray atomic pair distribution function
analysis, to reveal the presence of fluctuating local-structural distortions at
high temperature of one such compound, \cis . We show that this hitherto
overlooked fluctuating symmetry lowering is electronic in origin and will
significantly modify the energy-level spectrum and electronic and magnetic
properties. The explanation is a local, fluctuating, orbital-degeneracy-lifted
state. The natural extension of our result would be that this phenomenon is
likely to be widespread amongst diverse classes of partially filled nominally
degenerate d-electron systems, with potentially broad implications for our
understanding of their properties.
