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The corpus record — Latin

ferus

ferus

wild, savage, brutal

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 181 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

1. ferus — de Vaan

ferus 'wild, savage, brutal' [adj. o/a] (Carmen Arvale, Naev.+) Derivatives: fera 'wild animal' (Pac.+), fennus 'of wild beasts' (Lucr.+), ferox 'fierce, arrogant' (PL+), ferocia 'fierceness, arrogance1 (Cato+); efferus 'untamed, wild' (Lucr.+), perferus 'completely wild' (Varro). Pit */wero-. PIE g^ieh^r- 'wild animal' (> *g\iehiro-). IE cognates: Gr. ύήρ, -ός5 OPr. [acc.pl.] swirins, Lith. zviris, Latv. zv§rs, OCS … — [de Vaan, s.v. ferus, p. 229]

2. fĕrus — Lewis & Short

fĕrus, a, um, adj.cf. Gr. qh/r, Aeol. fh/r; Lat. ferox, etc.; v. ferio,

I wild, untamed.
I Lit., of animals and plants.
A Adj. (syn. immanis, opp. cicur): quae vero et quam varia genera bestiarum vel cicurum vel ferarum! Cic. N. D. 2, 39, 99; cf.: si hoc apparet in bestiis, volucribus, nantibus, agrestibus, cicuribus, feris, id. Lael. 21, 81: apes (opp. cicures), Varr. R. R. 3, 16, 19: immanes et ferae beluae, Cic. N. D. 2, 64, 161: fera et immanis belua, id. Ac. 2, 34, 108; Nep. Dat. 3, 2; Curt. 5, 4, 19; Suet. Aug. 67: leones, Hor. Epod. 7, 12: equus, id. S. 1, 5, 57: caprae, Verg. A. 4, 152: palumbus, Plin. 30, 7, 20, § 60 et saep.: arbores, Plin. 14, 20, 25, § 127: oliva, Stat. Th. 6, 7: fructus, Verg. G. 2, 36: odor (with solitudinem redolens), disagreeable, Plin. 12, 17, 37, § 76.—
B Subst.
1 fĕrus, i, m., a wild animal, wild beast (poet.); a lion, Phaedr. 1, 21, 8; a boar, id. 4, 4, 3; a horse, Verg. A. 2, 51; 5, 818; a stag, id. ib. 7, 489; a serpent, Sil. 6, 268.—
2 fĕra, ae (sc. bestia), f., a wild animal, wild beast (class.): immani et vastae insidens beluae, quocumque vult, inflectit illam feram, Cic. Rep. 2, 40; cf. id. Rosc. Am. 26, 71: neque ulla re longius absumus a natura ferarum, id. Off. 1, 16, 50: ipsae ferae nullo insequente saepe incidunt (in plagas), id. ib. 3, 17, 68: multa in ea (silva Hercynia) genera ferarum nasci constat, Caes. B. G. 6, 25 fin.: neque homini neque ferae parcunt, id. ib. 6, 28, 2: formidolosae dum latent silvis ferae, Hor. Epod. 5, 55: more ferarum, id. S. 1, 3, 109: Romulea fera, the she-wolf that suckled Romulus, Juv. 11, 104; a sea-monster, Ov. M. 4, 713; 719; a serpent, Hyg. Astr. 2, 42; the ant, Mart. 6, 15, 2; the constellations of the Great and Little Bear: magna minorque ferae, id. Tr. 4, 3, 1; Vulg. Gen. 37, 20.— Prov.: ferae inter se placidae sunt, morsuque similium abstinent, Sen. de lra, 2, 8, 3.—
II Transf., of places (syn. incultus): in locis feris arbores plura ferunt, in his, quae sunt culta, meliora, wild, uncultivated, Varr. R. R. 1, 7, 7; cf.: ferus, ager incultus, Paul. ex Fest. p. 86 Müll.: montes, Verg. E. 5, 28: silvae, Hor. S. 2, 6, 92.—
III Trop., wild, rude, uncultivated; savage, barbarous, fierce, cruel (syn.: immanis, agrestis, inhumanus; opp. mansuetus, humanus): ipsis in hominibus nulla gens est neque tam mansueta neque tam fera, quae non, etc., Cic. Leg. 1, 8, 24; cf.: nulla gens tam fera, nemo omnium tam immanis, cujus, etc., id. Tusc. 1, 13, 30; id. Phil. 3, 9, 23: ex feris et immanibus mites reddidit et mansuetos, id. Inv. 1, 2, 2; Cic. Verr. 2, 2, 21, § 51: ferus atque agrestis, id. Rosc. Am. 27, 74: inhumani ac feri testes, id. Rep. 1, 37 fin.; cf. Ter. And. 1, 5, 43: ferus et ferreus, Cic. Q. Fr. 1, 3, 3: quam ferus et vere ferreus ille fuit! Tib. 1, 10, 2; v. ferreus: nemo adeo ferus est, ut non mitescere possit, Hor. Ep. 1, 1, 39: Britanni hospitibus feri, id. C. 3, 4, 33: Numantia, id. ib. 2, 12, 1: Iberia, id. ib. 4, 5, 27: animi hominum, studiis bellandi jam immanes ac feri, Cic. Rep. 2, 14; id. Fragm. ap. Non. 342, 33 (Rep. 2, 23 ed. Mos.): ingenium immansuetum ferumque, Ov. M. 15, 85; cf.: (ostendere ejus) mores feros immanemque naturam, Cic. Rosc. Am. 13, 37: homines a fera agrestique vita ad hunc humanum cultum civilemque deducere, id. de Or. 1, 8, 33: victus, id. Inv. 1, 2, 2: moenera militiaï, Lucr. 1, 29: munera belli, id. 1, 32: hiems, Ov. Tr. 1, 1, 42; cf.: diluvies, Hor. C. 3, 29, 40: sacra (of death by sacrifice), Ov. M. 13, 454: dolores lenire requie, id. ib. 13, 317.—With supine: ferum visu dictuque (= deino\n i)dei=n kai\ le/gein), Sil. 1, 175.—No comp. or sup.

3. ferus — Walde–Hofmann

ferus, -a, -um „wild, wildwachsend, -lebend* (fera f. „wildes Tier“ seit Naev.); übtr. „grausam, hart" (seit Carm. Arv., rom. [neben silräticus; roman. in weiterentwickelten Bedd., Wartburg III 481; s. auch III 465 zu *fericula „Thymian“]; davon -inus seit Lucr. [-ina f. „Wildbret“ seit Verg.) -itds , Wildheit" seit Cic., perferus Varro, 488 Fescennin! — festino. — [Walde–Hofmann, s.v. ferus, p. 519]

In the wild

6 of 1,082 attestations shown.

Where it came from

  • de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) Treated in de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Brill 2008) s.v. ferus (scan p. 229; entry #558).
  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. ferus (scan p. 254; entry #3953).
  • Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch Treated in Walde-Hofmann, Lateinisches etymologisches Worterbuch s.v. ferus (scan pp. 519-520; entry #1111).

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.