ferment

From Middle English ferment, from Middle French ferment, from Latin fermentāre (“to leaven, ferment”), from fermentum (“substance causing fermentation”), possibly from contraction of *fervimentum, from fervēre. See also fervent.

• (verb):
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fəˈmɛnt/

    • Audio (Southern England):

      (file)

  • (General American) IPA^(key): /fɚˈmɛnt/
  • Rhymes: -ɛnt
• (noun):
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɜː.mɛnt/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɚ.mɛnt/

ferment (third-person singular simple present ferments, present participle fermenting, simple past and past participle fermented)

1. To react, using fermentation; especially to produce alcohol by aging or by allowing yeast to act on sugars; to brew.
   • 2020 November 18, Drachinifel, 6:21 from the start, in The Salvage of Pearl Harbor Pt 2 - Up She Rises!‎^[1], archived from the original on 22 October 2022:

     The cleanup job would turn out to be possibly second only to body-recovery duty in terms of being a job that nobody wanted to get assigned to. Imagine, for a moment, a thick soup of oil, paper, ink, clothing, raw meat and other fresh provisions, and worse, that had all been left to collect together in semi-warm water, all enclosed in a large metal container that had then been subjected to heating by first fire and then repeated warm Hawaiian days, and then left to ferment for over a month, and then with most of the water drained away and all the remaining solid and semi-liquid mass collecting together in pools and heaps across multiple decks, still in a relatively-enclosed environment.

2. To stir up, agitate, cause unrest or excitement in.
   • 1713, [Alexander] Pope, Windsor-Forest. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:

     Ye vigorous swains! while youth ferments your blood.

   • a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Winter”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 165, lines 10–14:

     Pleas'd have I wander'd thro' your rough domain; / Trod the pure virgin-ſnows, myſelf as pure; / Heard the winds roar, and the big torrent burſt; / Or ſeen the deep fermenting tempeſt brew'd, / In the grim evening ſky.

• yeast (verb)

ferment (plural ferments)

1. Something, such as a yeast or barm, that causes fermentation.
2. A state of agitation or of turbulent change.
   • a. 1729, John Rogers, The Difficulties of Obtaining Salvation:

     Subdue and cool the ferment of desire.

   • 14 November, 1770, Junius, letter to the Right Honourable Lord Mansfield

     The nation is in a ferment.

   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 104

     Clad in a Persian-Renaissance gown and a widow's tiara of white batiste, Mrs Thoroughfare, in all the ferment of a Marriage-Christening, left her chamber on vapoury autumn day and descending a few stairs, and climbing a few others, knocked a trifle brusquely at her son's wife's door.

   • 2001, Bernard E. Harcourt, chapter 5, in Illusion of Order:

     Proponents of the broken windows theory assume that [disorder] means a neighborhood has lost control and doesn't care about crime. But surely there are other plausible meanings. It could signal artistic ferment, a youth hangout, rebellion, or an alternative lifestyle.

3. A gentle internal motion of the constituent parts of a fluid; fermentation.
   • 1748, James Thomson, “Canto II”, in The Castle of Indolence: […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, stanza XXX, page 56:

     A Rage of Pleaſure madden'd every Breaſt, / Down to the loweſt Lees the Ferment ran: [...]

4. A catalyst.

• foment

• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “ferment”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “ferment”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Fermentation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• fretmen

From Latin fermentum.

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

ferment m (plural ferments)

1. ferment

• antiferment

• fermentar

• “ferment”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026

• Audio (France (Brétigny-sur-Orge)):

  (file)

ferment

1. third-person plural present indicative/subjunctive of fermer

Learned borrowing from Latin fermentum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛr.mɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛrmɛnt
• Syllabification: fer‧ment

ferment m inan

1. ferment, unrest
2. (archaic, biochemistry) enzyme

   Synonym: enzym

• “ferment”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[2] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “ferment”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[3] (in Polish)

Borrowed from French ferment, from Latin fermentum.

ferment m (plural fermenți)

1. ferment