fervens

Forms

fervēns (genitive ferventis, comparative ferventior, superlative ferventissimus); third-declension one-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is the present participle of ferveō (“to boil, be hot”), used as an adjective.^[1][2][3] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *ferwe/o- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰeru-e/o- (“to be hot, boil”).^[4] Cognate with Old Irish berbaid (“boils”) and Welsh berw (“to boil”).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is in Plautus' Captivi, of dishes kept warm on glowing braziers.^[1] Köbler dates it from Cicero.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means intensely hot or boiling, and of metal red-hot; of land and seasons it is torrid, as Seneca's man enduring the blazing sun in the hottest dust.^[1] Of blood and wounds it means hot or fresh, as Ovid's sword drawn from the hot wound, and of the body inflamed or flushed, as Plautus' threat to make a man hot with whipping;^[1] Martial uses it of a burning fever.^[1] It also means producing a burning effect, as Persius' lust steeped in burning poison, and of waters seething, as Ovid's foaming torrent.^[1] Of the mind it means ardent or fervid: Cicero writes that a brave spirit is usually more fiery.^[1] Church Latin glosses it hot, fervent, and fervente die is in the heat of the day.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of hot braziers and of a man hot from whipping.^[1][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of a fiery spirit.^[1][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a hot wound and a foaming torrent.^[1][3]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial of a burning fever.^[1][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Intensely hot, boiling; of metal, red-hot; of land, torrid.^[1][2][5]
2. Of blood or wounds, hot, fresh.^[1]
3. Of the body, inflamed, flushed; of a fever, burning.^[1]
4. Producing a burning effect.^[1]
5. Of water, seething; of minds, in turmoil.^[1]
6. Ardent, fervent, fervid.^[1][5]

Related words

• ferveō
• fervor
• fervidus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b 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 Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson