fermentation

From Middle English fermentacioun, from Latin fermentātiō, fermentātiōnem. By surface analysis, ferment +‎ -ation.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌfɜːmənˈteɪʃən/, /ˌfɜːmɛnˈteɪʃən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌfɜɹmənˈteɪʃən/, /ˌfɜɹmɛnˈteɪʃən/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

fermentation (countable and uncountable, plural fermentations)

2. (biochemistry) Any of many anaerobic biochemical reactions in which an enzyme (or several enzymes produced by a microorganism) catalyses the conversion of one substance into another; especially the conversion (using yeast) of sugars to alcohol or acetic acid with the evolution of carbon dioxide
3. A state of agitation or excitement; a ferment.
   • 1678, Jeremy Taylor, “The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus: […]. The First Part.”, in Antiquitates Christianæ: Or, the History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus: […], London: […] E. Flesher, and R. Norton, for R[ichard] Royston, […], →OCLC, ad section IX (Considerations upon the Baptizing, Fasting, and Temptation of the Holy Jesus by the Devil), discourse IV (Of Baptism), part II (Of Baptizing Infants), page 130:

     [T]he Grace that is then given to us is like a piece of Leven put into a lump of dough, and Faith and Repentance do in all the periods of our life put it into fermentation and activity.

   • 1852 January – 1853 April, Charles Kingsley, Jun., “Preface”, in Hypatia: Or, New Foes with an Old Face. […], volume I, London: John W[illiam] Parker and Son, […], published 1853, →OCLC, pages xi–xii:

     The universal fusion of races, languages, and customs, which had gone on for four centuries under Roman rule, had produced a corresponding fusion of creeds, an universal fermentation of human thought and faith.

   • 1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 364:

     It seems that the spiritual fermentation of the cabbalists, who […] aroused the dormant susceptibilities of the Orient, penetrated also into Yemen and had the effect of a messianic message to the languishing souls longing for redemption.

• ferment

• infantometer

Borrowed from Latin fermentātiōnem. By surface analysis, fermenter +‎ -ation.

• IPA^(key): /fɛʁ.mɑ̃.ta.sjɔ̃/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

  (file)

fermentation f (plural fermentations)

1. fermentation

• fermentation homolactique

• fermenter

• → Romanian: fermentație
• → Turkish: fermantasyon

• “fermentation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012