JaBbA's Hut

During BBC's The World yesterday, David Patel of the Department of Political Science at Stanford University, talking about the groups involved in the insurgency said that "foreign [some word] jihadists...want to ferment a real civil war in Iraq".

Well, the feelings that lead to insurgency can ferment:

fer·ment
v. intr.

1. To undergo fermentation.
2. To be in an excited or agitated state; seethe.

But if you're going to cause the insurgency to start or continue, the word you want is foment

fo·ment
tr.v. fo·ment·ed, fo·ment·ing, fo·ments

1. To promote the growth of; incite.
2. To treat (the skin, for example) by fomentation.


[Middle English fomenten, to apply warm liquids to the skin, from Old French fomenter, from Late Latin fmentre, from Latin fmentum, poultice, from fovre, to warm. See dhegwh- in Indo-European Roots.]

I hear this mistake a lot.