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''ferine'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260227140228-00-⌔

ferine - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

ferine (comparative more ferine, superlative most ferine)

  • (now rare) Pertaining to wild, menacing animals; feral.
    • ✤ Synonyms: indomite, savage, tameless; see also Thesaurus: wild
    • ✤ the season of rutting (an uncouth phrase, by which the vulgar denote that gentle dalliance, which in the well-wooded forest of Hampshire, passes between lovers of the ferine kind) […]1
  • (zoology, obsolete) Belonging to the proposed taxon of bats, carnivorans, and insectivorans.

Noun

ferine (plural ferines)

  • (zoology, obsolete) A member of the proposed taxon of bats, carnivorans, and insectivorans.

Etymology

From Latin ferīnus, from fera (“wild animal”). The zoological sense was coined by William Whewell in 1840.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈfɪəɹaɪn/

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 162: ↩

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