ferment

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English fermenten,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French fermenter^[4][5][6] and directly borrowed from Latin fermentō (“to leaven, cause to rise or ferment”),^[4][5][2] from fermentum (“leaven, yeast; a drink of fermented barley”).^[4][5][6] The noun is inherited from Middle English ferment,^[2][7] borrowed from Old French ferment,^[4][7][6] recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1260–70 for yeast or leaven,^[8] and it may also come straight from the Latin noun.^[2][9][10] Barnhart thinks it probably came from the verb as well, and in some instances from fermentation.^[5] The Latin noun is formed on the root of ferveō (“to boil, seethe”),^{[6][9][10][11]} perhaps contracted from *fervimentum,^[4][12] with the suffix -mentum.^[11] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary take the root back to Proto-Indo-European *bhreu- (“to boil, bubble, effervesce, burn”),^[4][7] and Klein to *bher- (“to boil up, seethe”).^[13] It is akin to barm,^{[3][14][13][11]} fervent and effervescent.^[15][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of dough, to undergo fermentation: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, where sourdough is said to make paste ferment and rise.^[2][6][5] The noun, sourdough or leaven, follows about 1420, in Palladius on Husbondrie.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Both noun and verb began with dough.^[2][6] From 1471 to 1677 the noun also named an alchemical agent that makes matter effervesce and change its properties, and was sometimes applied to the philosopher's stone,^[6][2] and the verb had the matching alchemical use in Ripley.^[2] From 1605 the noun could also name the process itself.^[6] The figurative use was already Latin, where fermentum could mean anger or passion,^[4][5] but it reached English only in the 17th century: the verb for exacerbating or stirring up from 1660,^[6][5] with Etymonline noting a figurative use from the 1650s,^[4] and the noun for agitation or tumult from 1672, in Marvell's Rehearsal Transpros'd.^[6][5][4] Johnson (1755) described a ferment as "that which causes intestine motion" and also as the motion itself, or tumult.^[16] The Shorter Oxford marks the noun as archaic for an enzyme.^[10] The OED glosses the verb's sense of 1660 with foment,^[6] and in the West Riding and Cheshire dialects ferment simply meant "to foment".^[17]

Timeline

• before 1398 – verb, of dough, to undergo fermentation.^[6][2][5]
• c. 1420 – noun, leaven, yeast, then any agent of fermentation.^[6][2]
• 1471 – noun, an alchemical agent (obsolete by 1677).^[6]
• 1605 – noun, the process of fermentation.^[6]
• 1660 – verb, to exacerbate, foment.^[6][5]
• 1667 – verb, to work up into agitation, stir up.^[6]
• 1671 – verb, intransitive and figurative, in Milton's Samson Agonistes.^[6]
• 1672 – noun, agitation, excitement, tumult.^[6][5]
• 1673 – verb, transitive, to subject to fermentation.^[6] The Shorter Oxford dates this to the late 15th century.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To undergo fermentation: The cider fermented for a month in oak casks.^[3][18][6]
2. To cause something to undergo fermentation.^[18][6]
3. To stir up or excite: The rumours fermented unrest in the town.^[18][6][3]
4. To be inwardly active or agitated; to seethe.^[3][18]

Noun

1. An agent that brings about fermentation, such as a yeast, bacterium or enzyme.^{[18][7][3][6]}
2. The process of fermentation itself.^[18][7][6]
3. A state of agitation or of turbulent change: a country in political ferment.^[18][7][6]
4. A person or thing that stirs up agitation or change.^[3][7]
5. (obsolete, 1471–1677) In alchemy, a substance that makes matter effervesce and change its properties.^[6][2]

Word family

• fermentability
• fermentable
• fermentative
• fermenter
• nonfermenting
• unfermenting

Related words

• fermentation
• fervent
• effervescent
• barm
• foment
• comfrey

Usage notes

The noun is stressed on the first syllable and the verb on the second.^[18][6][10] Collins notes that both ferment and foment can be used of stirring up trouble, but only ferment is intransitive;^[18] Macquarie warns that the two are commonly confused.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
15. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
18. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
19. ^ The Macquarie Dictionary (2013), 6th ed., Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary Publishers