Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 28, 2023 is: fervid \FER-vid\ adjective

Fervid is a somewhat formal word describing people or things that express, or are expressive of, strong feelings.

// Many of the movie franchise’s most fervid fans camped outside of theaters for days leading up to the new installment’s opening night.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fervid)

Examples:

“Unabashed pop groups with fervid teenage followings tend to get trivialized, at least in the media. They’re dismissed as being slick and calculated and superficial. But there’s a story in ‘Wham!,’ the new Netflix documentary about the quintessential pop duo of the 1980s, that testifies to what a chancy and audacious artist George Michael was even back in his teen-idol days.” — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 8 July 2023

Did you know?

If you’ve ever felt as if your emotions were going to boil over, whether you were overly [bubbly](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bubbly) or, less happily, you needed to simmer down over something, you should have no trouble understanding the roots of fervid. Fervid comes from the Latin verb fervēre, meaning “to boil” or “to glow,” as well as, by extension, “to seethe” or “to be roused.” In English, this root gave us not only fervid but the similar-sounding and practically synonymous word [fervent](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fervent). But while fervid usually suggests warm emotion that is expressed in a spontaneous or feverish manner (as in “fervid basketball fans”), fervent is reserved for a kind of emotional warmth that is steady and sincere (as in “a fervent belief in human kindness”). Fervid fans of [kimchi](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kimchi) or [sauerkraut](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sauerkraut) (or fervent followers of anything fermented), may appreciate that fervēre is also the root of [ferment](https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/ferment-vs-foment-usage-difference).