ardor

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ardour, also ardure,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman ardure and Old French ardour,^[2][5][4] from Latin ārdor (“a flame, burning heat; eagerness, zeal”),^[2][6][7] from ārdeō (“to burn”),^[2][6][7] from Proto-Indo-European *as- (“to burn, glow”).^[6][4] The MED and Merriam-Webster also allow the Latin noun as a direct source,^[3][7] and Dictionary.com takes the Middle English form from Latin, replacing ardure, and ardour from Anglo-French in the 17th century.^[8] Etymonline names ardure (“heat, glow; inflammation; passion”) of the 12th century as the source.^[6] The Latin verb is akin to āreō (“to be dry”) and āridus (“dry”), the source of arid,^[7][2] and also to Old High German essa (“forge”) and Old Norse arinn (“hearth”).^[7] Its modern descendant is French ardeur.^[9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Heat of feeling: about 1390, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, according to Barnhart;^[2] the Parson's Tale has ardure for the heat of lechery.^[3][10] Etymonline finds it only in the mid-15th century.^[6] Collins, Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com all date it to the 14th century.^[5][7][8]

Semantic evolution

Anglo-Norman ardure could already mean burning, inflammation, zeal and sexual passion from the 12th century on.^[11] The MED records the English word for spiritual love (ardowr of lofe, before 1438), for the heat of sexual desire, and for a burning sensation.^[3] Etymonline notes that in Middle English it was used of base passions, and of noble ones since Milton's time.^[6] Johnson (1755) listed heat first, then the heat of affection, "as love, desire, courage", and last a sense used only by Milton, of the radiant angels of Paradise Lost: “thousand celestial ardours”.^[12][9]

Timeline

• c. 1390 – heat of feeling, in Chaucer.^[2][3]
• before 1438 – of spiritual love: ardowr of lofe.^[3]
• 16th century – the spelling ardor, influenced by Latin, replaces ardour and ardure, according to Barnhart.^[2]
• mid-17th century – a radiant spirit, in Milton (obsolete).^[9][12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Great warmth of feeling; passion, especially love: His ardor faded soon after the wedding.^[5][7][9]
2. Zeal, eagerness: her ardor for chess.^[5][7]
3. Extreme vigor or intensity.^[7]
4. (archaic) Fierce or burning heat.^[9][12]
5. (obsolete) A radiant spirit, as an angel.^[9][12]

Related words

• ardent
• arid

Usage notes

Ardor is the American spelling and ardour the British one.^[5][8][9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.