Wordie [wûrd • ē]
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22 wordies list
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first listed by:
karina (37 words)
appears in these lists:
karina's Words, by karina
entendres r us, by arby
rduke's Words, by rduke
Koani's Words, by Koani
Ceria's Words, by Ceria
New Words '07, by Jheti
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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.
Another example is perforce.
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
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'.
Extremely or excessively passionate.
Fired with intense feeling: ardent, blazing, burning, dithyrambic, fervent, fervid, fiery, flaming, glowing, heated, hot-blooded, impassioned, passionate, red-hot, scorching, torrid. See FEELINGS.