| 词组 | ferment, foment |
| 释义 | ferment, foment The Oxford American Dictionary 1980 says "Do not confuse ferment with foment." Bremner 1980 says "In their figurative senses,...ferment and foment are almost interchangeable"; Shaw 1975 agrees. Here is what our evidence tells us: • The literal senses are clearly distinct and cause no problem. Ferment refers to the chemical process of fermentation, and foment refers to treating the body with applications of moist heat. The figurative senses are more tangled, but looking at them according to parts of speech helps to sort them out. As nouns, ferment and foment differ greatly. Foment is practically never used with a figurative meaning, but ferment has two common figurative senses, "a state of unrest" or "agitation" and "a process of active, often disorderly development." • The decline in coffee prices is causing economic ferment —Newsweek, 28 Feb. 1955 • Since he visited only troubled schools, his impression was one of a system in ferment —Peter Binzen, Saturday Rev., 5 Feb. 1972 • ... one of the greatest eras of intellectual ferment and creativity in history —Robert E. Herzstein, N.Y. University Bulletin, Spring 1967 • ... there is a more healthy ferment in cognitive psychology ... than there has been for many years — Noam Chomsky, Columbia Forum, Spring 1968 Now for the figurative verb senses. Ferment has the intransitive sense "to be in a state of agitation or intense activity": • ... these truths have been fermenting in the minds of a great many people —C. E. Ayres, Saturday Rev., 14 Oct. 1950 • ... whenever a new plot begins to ferment —Joan Aiken, The Writer, May 1968 It also has a transitive sense "to work up (as into a state of agitation)." Foment also has a figurative transitive sense "to promote the growth and development of; and it is in these senses, in some contexts, that the words can be virtually synonymous. There is, however, some difference in usage between the two words. Things that are fermented can be good or bad; things that are fomented are usually bad. And transitive uses offoment, which are virtually its only figurative uses, are much more common than transitive uses of ferment, which are just a small part of that word's orbit. • ... intelligence, which, fermented by much thought and travel in many lands, made him the raciest of wits —Vernon Louis Parrington, Main Currents in American Thought, 1930 • ... the present outbreak of lawlessness—fermented by the Mau Mau —L. S. B. Leakey, Mau Mau and theKikuyu, 1952 • ... the notion that wars are fomented by munitions makers —Frederick Lewis Allen, The Big Change, 1952 • ... seeking to foment revolution everywhere —Fred W. Neal, Center Mag., May/June 1972 |
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