‘Ferment’ vs. ‘Foment’

Ferment can refer to literal fermentation, in which yeast turns sugar into alcohol, or can be used figuratively to describe a state of excitement or activity. It is often used in connection with social, artistic, and political change. food means “to provoke or awaken.” The words have some overlap in usage, as both can be used to express agitation and situations that can cause change or instability.

You can link from ferment with making yogurt, kimchi, or beer and stimulant with acts that incite violence, but it’s easy to see how they can be confused with each other. For one thing, both words are not part of common everyday vocabulary and they are similar in spelling and pronunciation, but that’s not the whole story here: in fact, the These words share a core meaning that connects the ideas they represent beyond coincidence. of similarity.

fireplace burned photo

The final ‘Foment’ is from the Latin ‘fovēre’, which means “to warm up” or “to soothe.”

Origin and usage of ‘fermentation’

The connection to snacks and beverages is clear from the origins of fermentcomes from the Latin word for “leaven”, fermentverb word ferment “to cause rising or fermenting,” but the last Latin root of the word, enthusiasmwhich means “to boil” is also the root of enthusiasm.

Therefore, “heat” is the root of ferment. In fact, in Noah Webster’s 1828 dictionary, his definition of the noun is rarely used ferment makes the etymological connection pretty obvious:

  1. Gently boil; or internal movement of the liquid’s constituent parts.

Indeed, ferment as a noun was used in Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary definition of yeast:

yeast to drink to quench thirst; and into bread to brighten and puff

Since ancient times, it has been understood that liquid coating of grapes or crushed grains produces wine and beer, but only more modern science has disrupted alcoholic fermentation to prove the transition. saccharification of yeast. Use a derivative of the word “boil” to refer to the process that comes from the bubbles created during the conversion to alcohol—it looks like it is boiling. In fact, fermentation produces heat, and the temperature of the liquid when mixed with yeast is very important, but it seems that the word is used more to refer to the similarity of the fermented liquid to the liquid. boiling rather than from the metabolic understanding that the original brewers witnessed.

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Modern usage of ‘fermentation’

Nowadays, the verb ferment has a common literal as well as a common figurative meaning. Its literal usage, “to undergo or cause fermentation,” relates to the process of making yogurt, beer, wine, etc.

The figurative use, “to be in a state of intense excitement or activity,” can describe an action or change in idea, expression, or performance:

Rhythm and blues began to ferment into what would one day become the classic Motown sound of Detroit’s Paradise Valley and Black Bottom.— Ryan Matthews and Watts Wacker, “Deviants, Inc,” Fast Company, 28 February 2002

As a noun, ferment can be used to mean “enzyme” (as Samuel Johnson did in the above definition), but is more commonly understood to mean “unrest,” a synonym for “arousal”.

The most frequently used adjectives with nouns ferment shows that its use with the meaning of “enzyme” has been around for a long time, and today the word is more connected with ideas than with ingredients:

political

intellectuality

society

cultural

artistic

religion

Revolution

Note that, like other two-syllable English words that are both nouns and verbs (think of rebellion, againstor take note) noun ferment is pronounced differently from the verb; nouns are usually stressed on the first syllable, \FER-ment\ and verbs are stressed on the second syllable, \fer-MENT\.

This noun is sometimes used to describe extreme anxiety or restlessness:

At the same time, it is presented in a very unfortunate way, and some of the phrases in it are so provocative that publishing it would inevitably lead to the most dangerous state of mind in this country. Sir, there will be such excitement that I will not hesitate to say that within a week after that letter is published, this country will enter into a great war.— Arthur Conan Doyle, second stain1904

The proposal sank like a rock in Washington but caused great excitement abroad, especially in countries that would not be pleased if Beijing and Washington acted on the idea.— Richard C. Bush, United States and Chinabrookings.edu, October 11, 2011

On the other hand, it sometimes represents a positive mental energy:

The resulting festival of expatriate intellectual ferment and commercial audacity set the stage for Palladio’s maturity as an architect.— Dave Hickey, Harper’s MagazineApril 2003

Origin and Usage of ‘Foment’

food also to English from Latin, from motivation means “compressed” (“a folded piece of cloth”) and finally the word fovēre, which means “warm up” or “calm down.” Its original meaning in English is “to apply a warm substance,” and it was still in use when Noah Webster published his dictionary in 1828:

  1. To apply warm creams for; bath with warm medicinal alcohol, or with a felt cloth dipped in warm water.

This meaning has become obsolete. Another English word has fovēre as its final Latin root is fight“an object that can be contaminated with infectious microorganisms and transmit them,” derived from the Latin word for “wood,” conveying the idea that exposure to microscopic contamination can lead to “burning” or spreading disease—a similar image, if you think about it, with the “fire” or “heat” of ideas that can ferment into a state of excitement.

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Modern Uses of ‘Foment’

Today, we use stimulant with the meaning “to promote the growth or development of,” a synonym of awaken And incite as in “to stimulant a rebellion.”

Having failed to address the danger posed by Trump last year, the Party must be held accountable for Trump’s ability this year to instigate an uprising.— Jelani Cobb, New YorkersJanuary 8, 2021

This meaning is also close to outbreak and, indeed, this is the place stimulant intersects with the figurative use of ferment also. It expresses distress, anxiety, or unstable ideas and prompts action or change, a synonym for “agitated” or “agitated”. Joe Biden used ferment in this way, add it to a similar symbolic use of Brewer which shows that English has turned the chemical changes that make up beer, wine, and liquor into powerful metaphors:

When you have income inequality as large as we have in the United States today, it fuels and ferments political discord and fundamental revolution.— Joe Biden, 19 June 2019

In reality, stimulant listed as a synonym of ferment in this sense, so these words, superficially similar, are just coincidental, however, both can express ideas that generate more heat than light.

Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn

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