Fomenting

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To incite or encourage unrest, agitation, or trouble while promoting the growth of feelings, actions, or behaviors that disrupt the status quo
2. Involvement in actions that provoke or instigate conflict, unrest, or emotional reactions while fostering an environment ripe for dissent
3. To actively encourage or promote disturbance or rebellion among people

Etymology: The verb "foment" started out as a medical term. Its Latin ancestor, "fomentum", meant a warm lotion or poultice applied to the body to ease pain or swelling, and it came from the verb "fovere", meaning to heat or to cherish. A fomentation was therefore a hot compress, and the physical sense of applying warmth to a sore spot stayed attached to the word for centuries. The figurative sense developed from that idea of applying heat to something. Just as a warm compress was meant to encourage a reaction in the body, to foment something came to mean deliberately encouraging a feeling or unrest to grow. English borrowed the verb from Old French "fomenter", which had passed it on from Late Latin "fomentare", and it arrived in Middle English as "fomenten". "Fomenting" is the form that describes the act of stirring up trouble, as in fomenting rebellion or fomenting discord.

Synonyms: instigating, inciting, provoking, stirring, agitating

Antonyms: calming, suppressing, quelling, dissipating, soothing