VEHEMENCE

The Latin term vehementĭa came to Castilian as vehemence . This concept alludes to the property of vehement : that it has a lot of energy , strength , momentum or ardor . For example: "The young man vehemently defended his father, tired of the accusations" , "The Chilean midfielder hit the ball vehemently and scored the third goal for his team" , "I need a manager who vehemently disseminates the values ​​of this company among employees ” .

Vehemence can appear in different settings. A person may speak vehemently, using a raised tone of voice or shouting with the intention of emphasizing their ideas or imposing themselves on others in an argument. Suppose a man is angry with his 13-year-old son because he found him smoking despite the fact that he had forbidden such action, explaining the damage that this habit generates. The father vehemently condemns the boy's behavior, details all the negative consequences that smoking can have on his health, and punishes him by preventing him from using his video game console for a month.

When we speak of vehemence in the context of oratory , it is a trait that allows us to imprint in our words a dose of passion out of the ordinary, thanks to which we can make them reach the interlocutors with more intensity. A passionate speech can remain forever etched in the memory of the audience, influencing people to the point of changing their lives, leading them to make decisions that they previously believed were impractical.

This force, this fire that characterizes vehemence is important in all areas of life; it is one of the two extremes of the energy with which we move, the other being absolute calm, lack of motivation . Of course, if all the people spoke and always acted in this way, it would no longer have any impact on anyone, and that is why it is necessary that there be a few who help to articulate the groups with these peaks of tension when expressing themselves.

Vehemence can also be an act that is carried out without prior reflection . In this case, the notion is linked to impulsive or impetuous action. A woman who sees a child drowning in the river can jump into the water to try to save him, without thinking about the strength of the current or the risks to her own life. In such a case, this person would be acting vehemently in a desperate situation.

In the middle of an emergency, it is often necessary for us to let ourselves be carried away by impulses and to act without thinking, since in general the time to make decisions is very little. In addition, when we proceed vehemently in the midst of a life or death situation we tend to have more strength and dexterity than normal, thus we become capable of performing actions that exceed our own abilities.

Another possibility is that the vehemence is present in the physical force of a movement or an action . Striking a nail vigorously involves applying a lot of force to each strike.

It should be noted that this term is not usually part of everyday speech, at least not in most areas. Although there are those who use it in their conversations, it is much more common to find it in written language. For example, it is not normal to describe an action as trivial as hammering a nail using this word to indicate the force of the blows, unless the sender tries to refer to the emotional state of the person, to background situations that influence their humor.