fermento

Forms

fermentō (present infinitive fermentāre, perfect active fermentāvī, supine fermentātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin fermentum (“leaven, yeast”) + -ō, the verb suffix.^[2][3][1] De Vaan reconstructs the noun as Proto-Italic *fer(a)mentom, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer(H)-mn̥ (“ferment”), and finds it most attractive to see in it the root that underlies ferveō “to boil”, though the form and meaning of the original root are not clear.^[4] He compares Old English beorma, Middle Low German barme and German Burme “barm”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan gives Varro as its first author.^[4] In his work on farming, Varro says that pigeon dung can make the soil rise and loosen.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its basic sense is to leaven or to make something ferment, and in the passive to rise or ferment: Pliny the Elder and Celsus speak of leavened bread, and Columella of figs left to ferment.^[2][5] From farming it was used of loosening and aerating the soil.^[2][5]

Figuratively it meant to sour or spoil, as in Paulinus of Nola.^[5] The Vulgate uses it of the leaven that a woman hides in flour,^[5] and in Ecclesiastical Latin it keeps the sense “to leaven”.^[6] English ferment comes from it in the late 14th century, partly through French.^[7]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of dung that loosens the soil.^[2][4][8]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of tilling the soil and of fermenting figs.^[2][5][8]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of leavening barley bread.^[5][8]
• 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses it of leaven in flour.^[5][8]
• c. 353–431 AD – Paulinus of Nola uses it figuratively for “to sour, spoil”.^[5][8]
• late 14th century – English borrows it, from Old French and directly from Latin, as ferment.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cause to ferment; to leaven;^[2][5][6] (passive) to rise, ferment.^[2][5][6]
2. (transferred) To loosen or aerate the soil.^[2][5]
3. (figurative) To sour, spoil.^[5]

Word family

• confermento
• fermentescō
• infermentatus
• suffermentatus
• fermentātus

Related words

• fermentārius
• fermentum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de