# ferment
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English ferment, from Middle French ferment, from Latin fermentāre (“to leaven, ferment”), from fermentum (“substance causing fermentation”), from fervēre (“to boil, seethe”). See also fervent.

### Pronunciation

* (verb):
** (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /fəˈmɛnt/
*** Audio (Southern England):(file)
** (General American) IPA: /fɚˈmɛnt/
** Rhymes: -ɛnt
* (noun):
** (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈfɜː.mɛnt/
** (General American) IPA: /ˈfɚ.mɛnt/

### Verb

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

#### Derived terms

* apoferment
* coferment
* fermentability
* fermentable
* fermental
* fermentarian
* fermentate
* fermentative
* fermenter
* fermentic
* fermentome
* fermentor
* lactoferment
* nonfermenting
* overferment
* preferment
* referment, re-ferment
* underferment
* unfermenting

#### Translations
### Noun

ferment (plural ferments)
* Something, such as a yeast or barm, that causes fermentation.
* 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.
* 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: [...]
* A catalyst.

#### Translations
### See also

* foment

### References

* Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “ferment”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* “ferment”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* Fermentation on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* fretmen

## French
### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Verb

ferment
* third-person plural present indicative/subjunctive of fermer

## Polish
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin fermentum.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈfɛr.mɛnt/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛrmɛnt
* Syllabification: fer‧ment

### Noun

ferment m inan
* ferment, unrest
* (archaic, biochemistry) enzyme
    Synonym: enzym

#### Related terms

* fermentacyjny
* fermentacja
* fermentować
* sfermentować

### Further reading

* ferment in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
* ferment in Polish dictionaries at PWN

## Romanian
### Etymology

Borrowed from French ferment, from Latin fermentum.

### Noun

ferment m (plural fermenți)
* ferment