ebullience

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English

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WOTD – 9 July 2020

Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin ēbullientem + English -ence (suffix meaning ‘having the state or condition of’). Ēbullientem is the accusative feminine or masculine singular of ēbulliēns (“boiling”), the present participle of ēbulliō (“to boil”) (from ē- (prefix meaning ‘out, away’) + bulliō (“to bubble; to boil”) (from bulla (“bubble; bubble-shaped object”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to blow; to inflate”))) + -ēns.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ebullience (usually uncountable, plural ebulliences)

  1. A boiling or bubbling up; an ebullition.
  2. (figuratively) The quality of enthusiastic or lively expression of feelings and thoughts.
    Synonym: exuberance
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, “The Escape of Sophia”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume IV, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book X, pages 81–82:
      Sophia did not ſee his Behaviour in ſo very diſadvantageous a Light, and was perhaps more pleaſed with the violent Raptures of his Love [...] than ſhe was offended with the reſt; and indeed ſhe imputed the whole to the Extravagance, or rather Ebullience, of his Paſſion, and to the Openneſs of his Heart.
    • 1771, [Henry Mackenzie], “His Skill in Physiognomy”, in The Man of Feeling, 2nd edition, London: Printed for T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 94:
      [H]is friend, with great ebullience of paſſion, many praiſes of his own good play, and many maledictions on the power of chance, took up the cards, and threw them into the fire.
    • 1830 August 15, “Delta” [pseudonym], “The Probationer of Lochievale”, in The Atheneum; or Spirit of the English Magazines, volume IV (Third Series), number 10, Boston, Mass.: John Cotton, […], →OCLC, page 390, column 2:
      The first ebullience of parental joy at his return, together with the congratulations of his affectionate brethren, having gradually subsided, few days were indeed allowed for idle recreation; and the same industrious course was persevered in.
    • a. 1835, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Notes and Lectures upon Shakespeare, and Some of the Old Poets and Dramatists, […] [Romeo and Juliet]”, in Mrs. H[enry] N[elson] Coleridge, [William Greenough Thayer] Shedd, editors, The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. […] In Seven Volumes, volumes IV (Lectures upon Shakespeare and Other Dramatists), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1854, →OCLC, page 112:
      O! how shall I describe that exquisite ebullience and overflow of youthful life, wafted on over the laughing waves of pleasure and prosperity, as a wanton beauty that distorts the face on which she knows her lover is gazing enraptured, and wrinkles her forehead in the triumph of its smoothness!
    • 1922 April, Paul Rosenfeld, “The Water-Colours of John Marin: A Note on the Work of the First American Painter of the Day”, in John Peale Bishop, editor, Vanity Fair, volume 18, number 2, New York, N.Y.: Vanity Fair Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 48, column 2:
      About John Marin, there move sad, disgruntled beings, full of talk and lamentations. [...] They bewail the fact that in America, soil is poor and unconducive to growth, and men remain unmoved by growing green. But Marin persists, and what ebullience and good humour, in the rocky ungentle loam?
    • 1975, Wilfrid Mellers, “Heterophony and Improvisation: The New Orleans Jazz Band and King Oliver; Bessie Smith and the Urban Blues”, in Music in a New Found Land: Themes and Developments in the History of American Music, New Brunswick, N.J., London: Transaction Publishers, published 2011, →ISBN, page 281:
      But if jazz was in one sense a music of rejoicing, of liberated ebuillence, it was at the same time, even in New Orleans, still a music of protest: [...]
    • 1999, Christine Rauchfuss Gray, “Afterword”, in Willis Richardson, Forgotten Pioneer of African-American Drama (Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies; no. 190), Westport, Conn., London: Greenwood Press, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 105:
      The actual lives led by most African Americans were much different from the grinning masks and the ebullience displayed on stage.
    • 2010 June, Michael Salvatore, chapter 1, in Between Boyfriends, New York, N.Y.: Kensington Books, →ISBN, page 3:
      When I first met him in the wee hours of the morning of this very day, I sensed he possessed an ebullience and intelligence that I had not encountered for the longest time.
    • 2012, P. D. Smith, “History”, in City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age, London, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 64:
      Although it is invariably urban in its setting, Carnival is bigger than any one city or religion. Its ebullience and dynamism is a natural florescence of dense communities.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Compare “ebullience, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1891; “ebullience, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
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