fervesco

Forms

fervēscō (present infinitive fervēscere); third conjugation, no passive, no perfect or supine stems^[1] Priscian records a spelling ferbēscō; only forms of the present stem are found.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin ferveō (“to boil, be hot”) + -scō, an inchoative verb.^[3][1][4] The base goes back to Proto-Italic *ferwe/o- and Proto-Indo-European *bʰeru-e/o- (“to be hot, boil”).^[5] De Vaan takes this verb as evidence that the second-conjugation present of the base is old.^[5]

Cognate with Old Irish berbaid and Welsh berw, “to boil”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Plautus,^[5] meaning to become hot: possentne sēriae fervēscere, whether the jars could be heated.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Lucretius uses it of the wind growing hot through its own motion, of a spring heated by the sun, of the body burning with fever, and of the mind in anger: in īrā cum fervēscit, “when it boils up in anger”.^[3][7] He also uses it of waves seething under the force of the winds.^[3][8] Later writers have it of blood boiling with passion, of stones heated as if by fire, and of a mass boiling up into froth.^[3][6] In Arnobius it means to swarm, of something teeming with worms.^[6][9][8]

Medieval writers used it of wine fermenting and of blood boiling with bile, and figuratively of burning with zeal.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of heating jars.^[3][11]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius uses it of heat, fever, anger and seething waves.^[3][11]
• 34–62 AD – Persius uses it of blood boiling with passion.^[3][11]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of a mass boiling up.^[3][6][11]
• 297–310 AD – Arnobius uses it of swarming with worms.^[6][11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To grow hot, begin to boil.^[3][7]
2. (of the body) To become hot with fever or with passion.^[3]
3. To be agitated, seethe.^[3][8]
4. (Late Latin) To swarm (with worms).^[6][9]
5. (Medieval Latin) To ferment; to burn (with zeal).^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
10. ^ a b Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
11. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de