Passionate means full of strong feeling. A passionate speech, passionate about music, passionately opposed.
The construction is passionate about. It covers enthusiasm — passionate about cycling — and romantic intensity, and only context separates them, which is why the word appears so often in job applications and so awkwardly. Passionately is common before verbs and adjectives: passionately believe, passionately opposed. Note passion, which in a religious context means suffering — the Passion of Christ — which is the word's oldest sense.
1adjectivepassionateFull of strong feeling.
“It was a passionate speech to about eleven people.”
synonyms: fervent, ardent
2adjectiveenthusiasticEnthusiastic about something.
“She is passionate about the place and always has been.”
passionate is a quality of strong feeling.
Latin passio means suffering, from pati, to endure — the same root as patient and compassion. A passion was something done to you rather than something you felt, and the modern meaning has entirely reversed the direction.
Proto-Indo-European
*peh₁-
Medieval Latin
passiōnātus — affected, impassioned, libidinous, easely angered
Middle English
passionat
English, today
passionate
From Middle English passionat, from Medieval Latin passiōnātus (“affected, impassioned, libidinous, easely angered”). Equivalent to passion + -ate. Compare French passionné.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA