Home › Glossary › Letter F

fervourless

Adjective
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Without enthusiasm, warmth, or passionate feeling. The speaker compares the spiritually lifeless earth with himself.

Detailed Definition
“Fervourless” means lacking fervour, or intense feeling and energy. In the poem’s desolate winter setting, it describes both the earth’s apparent lifelessness and the speaker’s own emotional numbness before the thrush sings.
Example
Example in poetry:
“And every spirit upon earth / Seemed fervourless as I” means lacking passion, zeal, or emotional heat; “After the protest, the square stood fervourless beneath rain” places the adjective in a civic contemporary scene; “The fervourless hymn drifted from the emptied church” contrasts ritual with diminished belief; “A fervourless sun lay pale on the fields” transfers emotional flatness to landscape
Additional Notes
The quoted adjective is a rare negative formation whose meaning is not immediately familiar to many readers.; Found in the poem, The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy
Also Known As
unenthusiastic apathetic indifferent lackluster
Skip to main content