Learn English – the difference between fervor and ardor

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I am trying to increase my vocabulary skills and I have a hard time seeing the nuanced differences between these two words. Both have intense passion and enthusiasm as their common dictionary meaning. Etymology of ardor says it means to burn while etymology of fervor says it means to boil. I am trying to see a concrete difference between burn and boil and see in what instances/context it would appropriate to say feelings, passions are burning vs feeling, passions are boiling. They don't seem so different to me when I examine them that way, but by seeing their usage in variety of sentences it seems like there is a difference between them. Can anyone expound on this? Thanks.

Best Answer

Various dictionaries of synonyms mention and—to some degree—discuss ardor and fervor as related terms. For example, James Fernald, English Synonyms, Antonyms and Prepositions, thirty-first edition (1914) lists the two words (along with 18 others) under the general heading of enthusiasm. Unfortunately, Fernald doesn't devote any space to identifying precisely what the two words mean or how they differ.

Webster's Dictionary of Synonyms (1942), in contrast, has a fairly detailed discussion of the distinctions it sees between fervor and ardor, as part of a broader entry for passion:

Passion, fervor (or fervour), ardor (or ardour), enthusiasm, zeal agree in denoting intense, high-wrought emotion. ... Fervor and ardor both imply the kindling of emotion to a high degree of heat, but fervor suggests rather a steady glow or burning and ardor a restless or leaping flame. Fervor is associated therefore with emotions that express themselves in prayer, contemplation, devotion, preaching, in works of art, or the like; ardor, with emotions that express themselves in eager longings, zealous efforts, or the like; as, the fervor of the nun; the ardor of a missionary; to exhort with fervor; to dampen one's ardor. [Examples:] "The hieratic Buddhist art was to become formal and gradually lose the fervour of its inner life" (Binyon). "In the prints of Harunobu there is an intense sympathy with youth, with its shyness, its tremulous ardours" (Binyon).

Forty-two years later, Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Synonyms (1984) retains the "steady glow or burning" versus "restless or leaping flame" distinction that its predecessor did.

S.I. Hayakawa, Modern Guide to Synonyms and Related Words (1968) addresses the adjective forms ardent, fervent, and fervid in a group of synonyms headed by passionate and also including burning, fiery, impassioned, vehement, and zealous:

These words describe intense states of desire, dedication, or conviction. ... Ardent, fiery, and burning describe intense feeling in terms of fire. Of these, only ardent is free of negative implications in describing both desire and dedication: an ardent lover; an ardent patriot. ... Fervent and fervid come from the same root,meaning to boil. Their relationship is somewhat like that of impassioned and passionate. Fervent, like impassioned, implies being filled with abiding feeling; fervid, an intensification of fervent, suggests feverish intensity and a greater compulsion to act, with the same negative overtones possible as for passionate. Both fervent and especially fervid, however, have become somewhat stilted in tone.

I think that Merriam-Webster's emphasis on the steadier commitment implied by fervor versus the immediate intensity but long-term uncertainty of ardor is probably as real and consistent a difference in meaning between the two words as you are likely to find in everyday usage. It's important to recognize that most people base their word choices not on dictionary definitions but on impressions of proper usage derived from the language they encounter around themselves. It is therefore highly likely that ardor and fervor are much less distinct notions as used off the cuff by Fred Derf down the street than as used by Laurence Binyon in The Flight of the Dragon: An Essay on the Theory and Practice of Art in China and Japan, Based on Original Sources (1911).

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