The act of instigating or stirring up trouble, rebellion, or unrest; or the application of warm substances to the body for medical purposes.
From Latin 'fomentatio' (a warming, a stirring up) derived from 'fomentare' (to warm, to stir up, to incite), from 'fomentum' (warm application). The root may relate to 'fovea' (to warm).
This one word splits into two opposite medical worlds—it can mean either soothing warmth applied to an injury OR the psychological 'warming up' of rebellion, showing how the same root traveled from medicine to politics.
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