foment

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fəʊˈmɛnt/
• (US) IPA^(key): /foʊˈmɛnt/, /fəˈmɛnt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnt
• Homophone: ferment (in some dialects, unstressed)

From Middle English fomenten, a borrowing from Old French fomenter,^[1] from Late Latin fōmentāre, from Latin fōmentum (“lotion”), from fovēre (“heat, cherish”).

foment (third-person singular simple present foments, present participle fomenting, simple past and past participle fomented)

1. (transitive) To incite or cause troublesome acts; to encourage; to instigate.

   Synonyms: bring about, provoke; see also Thesaurus:incite

   He was arrested for fomenting a riot; after all, it's bad enough being in a riot but starting one is much worse.

   Foreign governments have tried to foment unrest.

   • January 7 2021, Peter Walker, “Tories urged to suspend politicians who likened US violence to anti-Brexit protests”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Boris Johnson and senior Conservative ministers have vigorously condemned the violence in Washington, but have largely steered clear of condemning Trump for fomenting it.

2. (medicine, transitive) To apply a poultice to; to bathe with a cloth or sponge.

   Synonyms: beath, poultice

   • 1904, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Abbey Grange, Norton, published 2005, page 1178:

     The maid had entered with us, and began once more to foment the bruise upon her mistress's brow.

From Middle English foment, from Latin fōmentum.^[2]

foment (plural foments)

1. Fomentation.
   • 1892, Julian Ralph, On Canada's Frontier:

     He came in no conciliatory mood, and the foment was kept up.

Learned borrowing from Latin fōmentum.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [fuˈmen]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [foˈment]

foment m (plural foments)

1. promotion, fostering, fomentation

• fomentar

• “foment”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007