ebullient

Borrowing from Latin ēbulliēns, present participle of ēbulliō (“I boil”), from bulliō (“I bubble up”) (English boil). Compare bubbling, bubbly, and perky, which use a similar metaphor.

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈbʊliənt/, /ɪˈbʌliənt/

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ebullient (comparative more ebullient, superlative most ebullient)

1. Enthusiastic; high-spirited.

   Synonym: zestful

   • 1908, James Ryder Randall, “Ashes”, in Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems, Baltimore, Md., New York: John Murphy Company, page 45:

     The Spring will come with its ebullient blood, / With flush of roses and imperial eyes

   • 2001, Joyce Carol Oates, Middle Age: A Romance, paperback edition, Fourth Estate, page 233:

     Marina's oddly ebullient words seemed to come to her slow as balloons

   • 2003 February 28, Nick Hopkins, “Spectator and its Tory MP editor may face charges over Taki race rant”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     Boris Johnson, the ebullient editor of the Spectator and Tory MP for Henley, is at the centre of a Scotland Yard inquiry over an allegedly racist article by the columnist Taki which provoked death threats against a leading black lawyer.

   • 2024 December 10, Isabel Depre, “After President Milei’s first year, Argentina’s economy is looking strangely ... normal”, in The Christian Science Monitor:

     But now, as an ebullient Mr. Milei declares his government the most successful in history and assures Argentines they’ll soon collect on the economic revival he pledged would follow the pain, the bar is getting higher even as risks remain.

2. (archaic) Of a liquid: boiling and bubbling, or agitated as if boiling.

   Synonyms: abubble, bubbly; see also Thesaurus:effervescent

3. (archaic) Causing heat.
   • 1726 October 28, , “A Further Account of the Academy. ”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. , volume II, London: Benj Motte, , →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 82:

     It is allowed, that Senates and great Councils are often troubled with redundant, ebullient, and other peccant Humours, with many Diſeaſes of the Head and more of the Heart; with ſtrong Convulſions, with grievous Contractions of the Nerves and Sinews in both Hands, but eſpecially the Right; with Spleen, Flatus, Vertigos and Deliriums; with Scrophulous Tumors full of fœtid purulent Matter; with ſower frothy Ructations, with Canine Appetites and Crudeneſs of Digeſtion, beſides many others needleſs to mention.

• e-bulletin

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key):
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ēbullient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of ēbulliō