• ardent •
Printable Version Pronunciation: ahr-dênt • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1 Passionate, fervent, highly enthusiastic. 2. Fiery, burning, glowing, as though on fire.
Notes: Although both ardency and ardentness have been used as nouns for this adjective, a noun with a completely different suffix, ardor (British ardour), is probably the most frequent noun partner of today's word. The adverb ardently is freely available for all occasions.
In Play: Whatever is done passionately is done with ardor: "Wyatt Hertz was so ardent in his pursuit of the perfect helicopter ejector seat that he overlooked a fatal flaw in the concept itself." (Now he's working on a solar powered flashlight.) Don't forget the second meaning of today's word: "That first afternoon Rachel was blinded by the ardent windows of the house next door as they filled with the evening sun."
Word History: Today's Good Word came to us from arden(t)s "burning", the present participle of the Latin verb ardere "to burn". The Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to burn" was as-, but Latin often converted S to R via a process called 'rhotacization'. The same verb went into the making of the adjective aridus "parched". Guess which adjective English made out of it. The root as- came to Old English as asce, which is retained today as ash, the remains of burning. (Today's Good Word was suggested by long-time friend and supporter of alphaDictionary, the ardent star-gazer of the Alpha Agora, Larry Brady.)
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