impassioned , passionate , ardent , fervent , fervid , perfervid mean showing intense feeling. impassioned implies warmth and intensity without violence and suggests fluent verbal expression. an impassioned plea for justice passionate implies great vehemence and often violence and wasteful diffusion of emotion. a passionate denunciation ardent implies an intense degree of zeal, devotion, or enthusiasm. an ardent supporter of human rights fervent stresses sincerity and steadiness of emotional warmth or zeal. fervent good wishes fervid suggests warmly and spontaneously and often feverishly expressed emotion. fervid love letters perfervid implies the expression of exaggerated or overwrought feelings. perfervid expressions of patriotism

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The adjectives "fervent," "fervid," and "perfervid" all derive from the Latin verb fervēre, meaning "to boil," and suggest a bubbling up of intense feeling. "Fervent" was the first to enter the English language in the 14th century. It stresses sincerity and steadiness of emotional warmth and zeal, as in "Her colleagues expressed fervent good wishes." The next to emerge was "fervid" in the late 16th century. It too suggests warmth but adds an element of spontaneity and feverishness. A lover might write a fervid billet-doux to his beloved, for example. With its first known appearance in print dating back only to 1833, "perfervid" is a relative newcomer to English, but it implies the most extreme or exaggerated expression of emotion. Its intensity comes from "per-," a prefix meaning "thoroughly."