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If you had sore muscles in the 1600s, your doctor might have advised you to foment the injury, perhaps with heated lotions or warm wax. Does this sound like an odd prescription? It's less so if you know that foment traces to the Latin verb fovēre, which means "to heat or warm" or "to soothe." The earliest documented English uses of foment appear in medical texts offering advice on how to soothe various aches and pains by the application of moist heat. In time, the idea of applying heat became a metaphor for stimulating or rousing to action. Foment then started being used in political contexts to mean "to stir up" or "to call to action."
Synonyms
Examples of foment in a Sentence
Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 1 Feb. 2025
The League of Nations proved feckless as the great powers turned to autarky and protectionism in the 1920s and 1930s, fomenting the nationalism that drove the autocratic regimes in Germany, Italy, and Japan to war.
—Michael Brenes, Foreign Affairs, 28 Jan. 2025
The government has accused Russia, and its ally Belarus, of fomenting a migration crisis on the EU’s eastern border with Belarus in order to create chaos and division in the EU.
—Vanessa Gera, Los Angeles Times, 15 Jan. 2025
Both are examples of populist-leaning pulpits where alternative narratives often flourish and all speech, even hate speech, is allowed, leading many on the Left to criticize them for fomenting alleged disinformation.
—Emily Hallas, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 3 Dec. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Foment.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/foment. Accessed 10 Feb. 2025.
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