Wiktionary

ferment

English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English ferment, from Middle French ferment, from Latin fermentāre (“to leaven, ferment”), from fermentum (“substance causing fermentation”), from fervēre (“to boil, seethe”). See also fervent.

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

ferment (third-person singular simple present ferments, present participle fermenting, simple past and past participle fermented)

  1. To react, using fermentation; especially to produce alcohol by aging or by allowing yeast to act on sugars; to brew.
    • 2020 November 18, Drachinifel, 6:21 from the start, in The Salvage of Pearl Harbor Pt 2 - Up She Rises!‎[1], archived from the original on 22 October 2022:
      The cleanup job would turn out to be possibly second only to body-recovery duty in terms of being a job that nobody wanted to get assigned to. Imagine, for a moment, a thick soup of oil, paper, ink, clothing, raw meat and other fresh provisions, and worse, that had all been left to collect together in semi-warm water, all enclosed in a large metal container that had then been subjected to heating by first fire and then repeated warm Hawaiian days, and then left to ferment for over a month, and then with most of the water drained away and all the remaining solid and semi-liquid mass collecting together in pools and heaps across multiple decks, still in a relatively-enclosed environment.
  2. To stir up, agitate, cause unrest or excitement in.
    • 1713, Alexander Pope, “Windsor-Forest. […]”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC:
      Ye vigorous swains! while youth ferments your blood.
    • 1726, James Thomson, “Winter”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 165, lines 10–14:
      Pleas'd have I wander'd thro' your rough domain; / Trod the pure virgin-ſnows, myſelf as pure; / Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent burſt; / Or ſeen the deep fermenting tempeſt brew'd, / In the grim evening ſky.

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

Noun edit

ferment (plural ferments)

  1. Something, such as a yeast or barm, that causes fermentation.
  2. A state of agitation or of turbulent change.
    • a. 1729, John Rogers, The Difficulties of Obtaining Salvation:
      Subdue and cool the ferment of desire.
    • 14 November, 1770, Junius, letter to the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield
      The nation is in a ferment.
    • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 104
      Clad in a Persian-Renaissance gown and a widow's tiara of white batiste, Mrs Thoroughfare, in all the ferment of a Marriage-Christening, left her chamber on vapoury autumn day and descending a few stairs, and climbing a few others, knocked a trifle brusquely at her son's wife's door.
  3. A gentle internal motion of the constituent parts of a fluid; fermentation.
  4. A catalyst.

Translations edit

See also edit

References edit

Anagrams edit

French edit

Pronunciation edit

Verb edit

ferment

  1. third-person plural present indicative/subjunctive of fermer

Polish edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from Latin fermentum.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

ferment m inan

  1. ferment, unrest
  2. (archaic, biochemistry) enzyme
    Synonym: enzym

Declension edit

Declension of ferment
singular plural
nominative ferment fermenty
genitive fermentu fermentów
dative fermentowi fermentom
accusative ferment fermenty
instrumental fermentem fermentami
locative fermencie fermentach
vocative fermencie fermenty

Related terms edit

adjective
noun
verbs

Further reading edit

  • ferment in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • ferment in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Romanian edit

Etymology edit

Borrowed from French ferment, from Latin fermentum.

Noun edit

ferment m (plural fermenți)

  1. ferment

Declension edit

Declension of ferment
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) ferment fermentul (niște) fermenți fermenții
genitive/dative (unui) ferment fermentului (unor) fermenți fermenților
vocative fermentule fermenților
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