different between zealous vs perfervid

English

Alternative forms

• zelous

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ????? (zêlos, “zeal, jealousy”), from ????? (z?ló?, “to emulate, to be jealous”). Doublet of jealous.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?z?l.?s/
• Rhymes: -?l?s
• Hyphenation: zeal?ous

Adjective

zealous (comparative more zealous, superlative most zealous)

1. Full of zeal; ardent, fervent; exhibiting enthusiasm or strong passion.
   • 1791, James Boswell, The life of Samuel Johnson, new ed. (1831) by John Wilson Croker, volume 1, page 238:

     Johnson was truly zealous for the success of "The Adventurer;" and very soon after his engaging in it, he wrote the following letter:

   • 1896, Andrew Dickson White, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom (2004 edition), page 122:

     Doubtless many will exclaim against the Roman Catholic Church for this; but the simple truth is that Protestantism was no less zealous against the new scientific doctrine.

   • 1940, Foster Rhea Dulles, America Learns to Play: A history of popular recreation, 1607-1940, page 61:

     […] and there were few more zealous dancers at the fashionable balls in the Raleigh Tavern at Williamsburg.

   • 2011 April 4, "Newt Gingrich," Time (retrieved 9 Sept 2013):

     Newt Gingrich . . . left Congress in 1998, following GOP midterm-election losses that many blamed on his zealous pursuit of Bill Clinton's impeachment.

Synonyms

• (full of zeal): ardent, eager, enthusiastic, fervent, passionate, zealotic

Antonyms

• (full of zeal): apathetic, dispassionate, indifferent, unenthusiastic

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

English

Etymology

From Late Latin perfervidus, from Latin per- + fervidus. Surface analysis per- +? fervid; compare pellucid.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /p???f??v?d/

Adjective

perfervid (comparative more perfervid, superlative most perfervid)

1. Extremely, excessively, or feverishly passionate; zealous.
   • 1939, Philip George Chadwick, The Death Guard, page 58:

     Manders — perfervid — 'hell'-ing excitedly (was there no one left on earth to convert but me?), quoting over a century from Marx and Nietzsche to Lenin, Lloyd George, and Eden, and on to Vessant and Mundaine and himself...

   • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber 1992, p. 177:

     In this case he saw himself sitting beside the breathing slender figure of Pia like someone in an old engraving – a beastly old Rembrandt exhaling the perfervid gloom of Protestantism and a diet of turnips.

   • 1989, Nick Cave, And the Ass Saw the Angel:

     Ah threw mahself down the porch steps and fell to mah knees in the middle of the yard, wringing mah hands and beating at the sky and wailing and reeling in the red dust and petitioning the almighty with perfervid prayer.

   • 2002, Joseph O'Conner, Star of the Sea, Vintage 2003, p. 6:

     A clown, Grantley Dixon, a perfervid parrot, with his militant slogans and second-hand attitudes: like all coffee-house radicals a screaming snob at heart.

Synonyms

• fervid, eager, ardent, enthusiastic

Related terms

• fervid, pellucid

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “perfervid”, in Online Etymology Dictionary