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If you’ve ever felt as if your emotions were going to boil over, whether you were overly bubbly or, less happily, you needed to simmer down over something, you should have no trouble understanding the roots of fervid. Fervid comes from the Latin verb fervēre, meaning “to boil” or “to glow,” as well as, by extension, “to seethe” or “to be roused.” In English, this root gave us not only fervid but the similar-sounding and practically synonymous word fervent. 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”). Fervid fans of kimchi or sauerkraut (or fervent followers of anything fermented), may appreciate that fervēre is also the root of ferment.
Synonyms
Examples of fervid in a Sentence
Ben Croll, Variety, 4 Apr. 2024
Laura Dern, at least, is powerfully fervid as Linda, who wants the town to be brought in line with her progressive politics.
—Tom Gliatto, Peoplemag, 20 Mar. 2024
To that end, Jackson convened with special effects supervisor Scott R. Fisher in Los Angeles and embarked on weeks of fervid experimentation.
—Hugh Hart, Los Angeles Times, 13 Dec. 2023
The fervid, youthful fandom around Ye and Travis makes their music more ripe to be leaked — and their hyper-attentive supporters remember every morsel along the online trail toward their big releases.
—Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 4 Aug. 2023
The performance, astutely played, pitted war against peace, fervid music and its luxuriating opposite at the center of so much Russian art.
—Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 9 July 2023
Parents shouted slogans like these in Glendale, North Hollywood, Temecula and even on the steps of the state Capitol in recent days, fervid in a hate that many in California thought was a thing of the past.
—Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2023
On the conference circuit, where the goals of the revolution were the subject of fervid debate, Penuma surgeons argued that urologists were at a crossroads.
—Ava Kofman, ProPublica, 26 June 2023
Even under moderate acceleration, the Sorento’s fervid engine and ginning drivetrain often broke through to the aural foreground; road noise and associated energies from the suspension went notably undamped.
—Dan Neil, WSJ, 16 Dec. 2020
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fervid.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Fervid.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fervid. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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fervid
adjective
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