ebullient
English edit
Etymology edit
Borrowing from Latin ēbulliēns, present participle of ēbulliō (“I boil”), from bulliō (“I bubble up”) (English boil). Compare bubbling, bubbly, and perky, which use a similar metaphor.
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
ebullient (comparative more ebullient, superlative most ebullient)
- Enthusiastic; high-spirited.
- Synonym: zestful
- 1908, James Ryder Randall, “Ashes”, in Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems, Baltimore, Md., New York: John Murphy Company, page 45:
- The Spring will come with its ebullient blood, / With flush of roses and imperial eyes
- 2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age: A Romance, paperback edition, Fourth Estate, page 233:
- Marina's oddly ebullient words seemed to come to her slow as balloons
- 2003 February 28, Nick Hopkins, “Spectator and its Tory MP editor may face charges over Taki race rant”, in The Guardian[1], →ISSN:
- Boris Johnson, the ebullient editor of the Spectator and Tory MP for Henley, is at the centre of a Scotland Yard inquiry over an allegedly racist article by the columnist Taki which provoked death threats against a leading black lawyer.
- (archaic) Of a liquid: boiling and bubbling, or agitated as if boiling.
- Synonyms: abubble, bubbly; see also Thesaurus:effervescent
- (archaic) Causing heat.
- 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Further Account of the Academy. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 82:
- It is allowed, that Senates and great Councils are often troubled with redundant, ebullient, and other peccant Humours, with many Diſeaſes of the Head and more of the Heart; with ſtrong Convulſions, with grievous Contractions of the Nerves and Sinews in both Hands, but eſpecially the Right; with Spleen, Flatus, Vertigos and Deliriums; with Scrophulous Tumors full of fœtid purulent Matter; with ſower frothy Ructations, with Canine Appetites and Crudeneſs of Digeſtion, beſides many others needleſs to mention.
Translations edit
enthusiastic
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agitated
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Anagrams edit
Latin edit
Pronunciation edit
- (Classical) IPA(key): /eːˈbul.li.ent/, [eːˈbʊlːʲiɛn̪t̪]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /eˈbul.li.ent/, [eˈbulːien̪t̪]
Verb edit
ēbullient