The corpus record — Latin

fermentum

ferment; yeast

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

De Pudicitia 3 · 2.23/10k
Saturae 1 · 2.21/10k
Epistulae. Selections. 2 · 0.43/10k
Saturae 1 · 0.4/10k
Satyricon 1 · 0.33/10k
Historiam ecclesiasticam gentis Anglorum 2 · 0.28/10k
Res Rustica, Books I-IX 2 · 0.25/10k
Epistulae. Selections. 1 · 0.23/10k
Adversus Marcionem 1 · 0.12/10k
De Medicina 1 · 0.1/10k
Naturalis Historia 4 · 0.1/10k

What it meant

1. fermentum — de Vaan

fermentum 'ferment; yeast' [η. ο] (Ρ1-+) Derivatives\fermentare 'to cause fermentation' (Varro+). Pit. *fer(a)mentom. PIE *bher(H)-mn [n.J 'ferment'. IE cognates: OE beorma, MLG barme, NHG Burme 'barm\ Form and meaning of the original root are not clear. Semantically, it is most attractive to regard fermentum as a derivative of the primitive root *bhr(H)- underlying the extended root *bhrH-u- or or *bhr-u- 'to boil' … — [de Vaan, s.v. fermentum, p. 227]

2. fermentum — de Vaan

fermentum 'yeast', in which case both nouns could continue *fermen. Thus, the precise origin is unclear. The form offerrumenta in PI. is probably a nonce-formation. Bibl.: WH I: 486, EM 230,459. ^ fermentum, ferved — [de Vaan, s.v. fermentum, p. 229]

3. fermentum — Lewis & Short

fermentum, i, n.contr. for fervimentum, from fervo, ferveo,

I that which causes fermentation, leaven, yeast, ferment.

I Lit., Plin. 18, 11, 26, § 102; 18, 7, 12, § 68: panis sine fermento, unleavened bread, Cels. 2, 24; 30; Vulg. Levit. 2, 4.—

B Transf.

1 That which loosens the soil, Plin. 17, 21, 35, § 159; cf. Col. 4, 1, 7.—

2 A drink made of fermented barley, malt liquor, beer, Verg. G. 3, 380.—

II Trop., anger, passion (poet. and very rare): (uxor) nunc in fermento tota est, ita turget mihi, Plaut. Cas. 2, 5, 17; id. Merc. 5, 3, 3.—Poet. transf., of the cause of anger or vexation: accipe et istud Fermentum tibi habe, Juv. 3, 188.

In the wild

fermentis Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 1.18.p29
fermentum Persius, Saturae 1.24
fermentum Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 18.11.p1
fermentum Bede, Historiam ecclesiasticam gentis Anglorum 5.21.p1
fermentum Celsus, De Medicina 5.28.p8
fermenti Augustine, Epistulae. Selections. 49.3

6 of 19 attestations shown.

Where it came from

de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. fermentum (scan p. 227; entry #547). Root candidates: *bheru-.
Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. fermentum (scan p. 251; entry #3892).

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.