The Latin word attitiāre came to our language as a fan. The concept can be used to refer to the action of adding some type of fuel to the fire or removing it in order to make it burn more.
For example: “Tell Miguel to add more wood to stoke the fire, so we don’t have cold”, “I’m going to cut the meat and then I’ll start building the fire “, “Try not to stoke the flames unless you want cause a fire ”.
According to DigoPaul, another meaning related to stoke refers to giving more wick to lamps or candles, or to wake them up to improve their lighting capacity. On the other hand, this verb can also be defined as a synonym for giving if the objects are “a kick” or “a stick”, for example, with the sense of “make someone or something suffer a blow “.
As if the meanings of this word did not present enough variety, there is another that defines it as “eating and drinking in large quantities, even in excess”; In this case, it is a pronominal verb, so it must be used reflectively, as can be seen in the following example: «As expected, Mario poked himself a good portion of cake, which was twice the size of the other diners.
Stoking can also consist of intensifying a passion or stirring up a controversy: “With my wife we will go to the Caribbean for a week to fan the flame of our passion”, “The statements of the candidate for president did nothing more than fuel the discussion between the two parties politicians “, ” The UN leader accused the Arab leader of stirring up tension in the region. “
According to these latter meanings, a person can perform different actions that end, either on purpose or without intention, causing a bigger problem than existed. Suppose that, in the days leading up to a football classic, supporters of both teams threaten each other through social media and with graffiti on city walls. There is, therefore, the risk of incidents occurring in the match. In this context, the coach of one of the teams declares to the press that the rival club’s supporters “don’t understand anything about football” and affirms that, therefore, “they should remain silent during the match. ” For sports journalists, these words fuel violence and hatred.
The previous example shows a situation in which the verb to stoke can be understood as a synonym of ” provoke, intensify or awaken”, or a combination of them according to the context and the direct objects used in each sentence. It is important to note that it is not possible to stoke a non-existent thing, since it is not a synonym of sowing or originating: whether in the case of fire, passion, hatred or violence, all these ties and feelings must previously exist in order to being able to subject them to the action of this term and get them to grow.
It goes without saying that we are dealing with a particularly broad concept, which has different meanings, with both positive and negative connotations, and which can be carried out voluntarily or involuntarily. We also note in this definition the particular relationship that exists at the cultural level between fire and passion, something that gives rise to more than one interpretation, not always referring to sexual relationships but can speak of passion for a vocation and love. fire that awakens in the person every time he cultivates it. Stoking a passion is like stoking a fire with good intentions, with well-defined and constructive objectives.