perfervid

American  

[per-fur-vid] / pərˈfɜr vɪd /

adjective

1. very fervent; extremely ardent; impassioned.

   perfervid patriotism.

---

perfervid British  

/ pɜːˈfɜːvɪd /

adjective

1. literary extremely ardent, enthusiastic, or zealous

---

Other Word Forms

• perfervidity noun
• perfervidly adverb
• perfervidness noun
• perfervor noun

Etymology

Origin of perfervid

First recorded in 1855–60; New Latin perfervidus, see per-, fervid

Explanation

Anything that's perfervid is full of an intense, deep emotion. Your perfervid speeches begging your parents to get a dog may do no good if they're both allergic. When feelings are impassioned and intense, they're perfervid. The word's Latin root, fervidus, means "glowing or burning," and it also gave rise to the adjective fervid, "intensely enthusiastic or passionate." Perfervid doubles down on that emotion by adding the prefix per-, "utterly or completely." So use it when your feelings are at their most intense: "The perfervid protesters demanded to be heard."

Example Sentences

Playing his part, Owen carried poetry into battle: the strange, futuristic work of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and the perfervid verse of Swinburne, each with their own mortal relationships to the sea.

From The Guardian • Nov. 3, 2018

But free silver, as articulated in the perfervid “Cross of Gold” speech, had been the making of Bryan as a national politician, and he couldn’t bear to let it go.

From Washington Post • Jan. 27, 2017

Beman dispatched his then-deputy commissioner to fly to our offices in Connecticut and pound on the table with his shoe, which I recall Finchem doing with perfervid outrage.

From Golf Digest • Nov. 8, 2016

It is a realm that quaintly evokes D. H. Lawrence’s perfervid notions of civilized souls divided within themselves and out of touch with what he called “blood consciousness.”

From New York Times • May 20, 2016

I stayed a night in London, on my way to Arundel, to hear Lord Hugh Cecil discourse at our Westminster Dining-club, with his usual perfervid rhetoric, on "Some Diseases of the House of Commons."

From A New Medley of Memories by Hunter-Blair, David