Wiktionary

ferment

English

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Etymology

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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

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Verb

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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. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:
      Ye vigorous swains! while youth ferments your blood.
    • a. 1749 (date written), 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

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Translations

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Noun

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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

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See also

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References

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Anagrams

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French

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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ferment

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

Polish

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Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Latin fermentum.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ferment m inan

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

Declension

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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
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adjective
noun
verbs

Further reading

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

Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from French ferment, from Latin fermentum.

Noun

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ferment m (plural fermenți)

  1. ferment

Declension

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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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