Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
PERFERVID, adj. Very fervid, ardent, enthusiastically patriotic, adopted from Buchanan as a standing epithet for this type of Scot (see note). Now also in Eng.Sc. 1852 North British Review (Aug.) 286:
Without maintaining at present that all Scotchmen are perfervid — that Scotchmen in general are, as we have seen it ingeniously argued, not cool, calculating, and cautious. but positively rash, fanatical, and tempestuous.Sc. 1889 J. S. Blackie Sc. Song 162:
The perfervid genius of the Scot.Sc. 1935 A. F. Murison Memoirs 145:
Much more perfervid remonstrance came from all the ends of the earth about the strictures I had made on the patriotism of Bruce.Sc. 1963 Gsw. Herald (19 Aug.):
Any Scot who has travelled and met his fellow countrymen abroad knows that there is no more perfervid Scot than the exile.