The Latin term vehementĭa passed into Castilian as vehemence. This concept refers to the vehement property: having a lot of energy, force, impetus or ardor. For example: “The young man vehemently defended his father, tired of the accusations”, “The Chilean midfielder hit hard and scored the third goal for his team”, “I need a coach who vehemently spreads the values of this company among the employees ” .
Vehemence can appear in different scenarios. A person may speak vehemently, raising his voice or yelling with the intention of emphasizing his ideas or imposing himself on others in an argument. Suppose a man is angry with his 13-year-old son because he found him smoking despite being prohibited from doing so, which explains the harm this habit causes. The father strongly 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 for a month.
When we talk about vehemence in the context of public speaking, it is a trait that allows us to imprint an unusual dose of passion on our words, thanks to which we can make them reach the interlocutors with more intensity. An impassioned speech can be forever etched in the audience’s memory, influencing people to the point of changing their lives, leading them to make decisions they once thought 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 people always spoke and acted like this, it would not have an impact on anyone else, so it is necessary that some people help to articulate groups with these peaks of tension when it comes to expressing themselves. Vehemence can also be an act performed 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 life. In that case, that person would be acting vehemently in a desperate situation. In the midst of an emergency, it is often necessary for us to let ourselves be carried away by impulses and act without thinking, because in general the time to make decisions is minimal. Furthermore, when we act vehemently in the midst of a life-or-death situation, we tend to have more strength and dexterity than normal, thus becoming capable of actions beyond our own capabilities.
Another possibility is that vehemence is present in the physical force of a movement or action. Hitting a nail forcefully involves applying a lot of force to each hit. It should be noted that this term is not usually part of everyday language, 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 intends to refer to the emotional state of the person, to background situations that influence their state of cheer up.
