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fervid
Episode 4044

fervid

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day · Merriam-Webster

November 19, 20171m 49s

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Show Notes

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for November 19, 2017 is:


fervid \FER-vid\ adjective

1 : very hot : burning

2 : marked by often extreme intensity of feeling


Examples:

"Here at the Toronto International Film Festival, there are posters for an upcoming Guillermo del Toro-curated exhibit called 'Influences' that will let you sample the movies and books and music that fed the director's fervid imagination." — David Edelstein, Vulture, 14 Sept. 2017

"The travellers set forth on horseback, and purposed to perform much of their aimless journeyings under the moon, and in the cool of the morning or evening twilight; the midday sun … being still too fervid to allow of noontide exposure." — Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun, 1860


Did you know?

The Latin verb fervēre can mean "to boil" or "to glow," as well as, by extension, "to seethe" or "to be roused." In English, this root gives us three words that can mean "impassioned" by varying degrees: fervid, fervent, and perfervid. Fervid and fervent are practically synonymous, but while fervid usually suggests warm emotion that is expressed in a spontaneous or feverish manner (as in "fervid basketball fans"), fervent is reserved for a kind of emotional warmth that is steady and sincere (as in "a fervent belief in human kindness"). Perfervid combines fervid with the Latin prefix per- ("thoroughly") to create a word meaning "marked by overwrought or exaggerated emotion," as in "a perfervid display of patriotism."

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Topics

MERRIAMMERRIAM-WEBSTERWORDLANGUAGEWORD A DAYENGLISHWEBSTERWORDSWORD OF THE DAYDICTIONARYVOCABULARY