perfervid
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
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."
Vocabulary lists containing perfervid
The Suffix -id, Part 4
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Eager
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
I think I know the conspiracy theory that perfervid Granite Stater was referring to.
From Salon • Oct. 7, 2015
This I knew perfectly well, but I could not check the perfervid rush of my song.
From A Son of the Middle Border by Garland, Hamlin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
