Wordie: Perfervid: Comments

Comment by sionnach, 10 months ago

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 06:31:28 +0000

seanahan: I'm not sure I agree that perforce fits the pattern. The per prefix in perforce just corresponds to the latin for 'by', and doesn't serve as an intensifier.

Sionnach:

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 02:32:36 +0000

Another example is perforce.

Comment by John, 10 months ago

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:47:49 +0000

AWAD, November 8, 2007:

Extremely or excessively passionate.

From Latin perfervidus, from Latin per- (thoroughly) + fervidus (boiling). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhreu- (to boil or to bubble), that is also the source of brew, bread, broth, braise, brood, breed, and barmy.

"It's a grand conclusion to a perfervid opera that can boil in the right hands and mouths."
- Donald Rosenberg; Traditional Puccini, Boiling-hot Passion; The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio); Oct 22 2007

Comment by sionnach, 10 months ago

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 14:28:56 +0000

This seems to be one of a handful of words in which the prefix 'per' is used to intensify the meaning of the remainder of the word. Other examples I can think of are peracute, perdurable, and perhaps perorate. In contrast, the prefix 'pur', as it appears in purblind, seems to have the connotation of 'partial'.

Comment by jeffazi, 10 months ago

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 13:11:52 +0000

Extremely or excessively passionate.

Roget says:

Thu, 24 May 2007 23:10:10 +0000

Fired with intense feeling: ardent, blazing, burning, dithyrambic, fervent, fervid, fiery, flaming, glowing, heated, hot-blooded, impassioned, passionate, red-hot, scorching, torrid. See FEELINGS.