Dictionary

perfervid en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /pəːˈfəːvɪd/ (UK)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. Extremely, excessively, or feverishly passionate; zealous.
   • 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. 1989, Nick Cave, And the Ass Saw the Angel:
   • 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... 1939, Philip George Chadwick, The Death Guard, page 58:
   • Once again we’re debating the programming choices of prominent podcasters: In March the instigating event was Joe Rogan giving a platform to Ian Carroll, a propagator of perfervid critiques of Israel; this time it’s Tucker Carlson giving a platform to Nick Fuentes, the Hitler-admiring leader of the so-called groyper right. 2025 November 4, Ross Douthat, “What Conservatives Should Do About Nick Fuentes”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 04 Nov 2025:
   • 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. 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 177:
   • 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. 2002, Joseph O'Conner, Star of the Sea, Vintage, published 2003, page 6:

Forms

Deriveds

perfervidness · perfervidly · perfervidity

Relateds

fervid · pellucid

Synonyms

ardent · fervid · enthusiastic · eager