ardor
\ AHR-der \, noun;
1.great warmth of feeling; fervor; passion: She spoke persuasively and with ardor .
2.intense devotion,eagerness, or enthusiasm; zeal: his well-known ardor for Chinese art. 3.burning heat.
Quotes:
How could that not speak to a million moviegoers? If they embraced Hoffman with ardor , it was in part because he looked so uncool, and so unbeautiful, and because he so obviously hailed from the same tribe as they did, and because there was a kind of beauty, after all, in the flame of feeling that got stoked inside that sweaty heft and pallor.
-- Anthony Lane, "The Master," The New Yorker , Feb. 17, 2014
Although I had a gift for self-pity, I knew her case would then be worse than mine; for it would be worse to see, as she would see, the ardor in his eyes give place to kindliness than never to have ardor there.
-- Rebecca West, "The Return of the Soldier ," 1918
Origin:
Ardor comes from the Latin ārd(ēre) meaning "to burn" and the suffix -or , which often occurs in loanwords from Latin and denotes a condition or property of things. In Middle English, this word was often spelled ardure .
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