ferine meaning (archaic): definition, etymology and quotations

ferine

adj

/ˈfɪəɹaɪn/

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

Archaic Pertaining to wild, menacing animals; feral.

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) […]1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society, published 1973, page 162:

Biology, Natural sciences, Zoology Obsolete Belonging to the proposed taxon of bats, carnivorans, and insectivorans.

noun

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

Biology, Natural sciences, Zoology Obsolete A member of the proposed taxon of bats, carnivorans, and insectivorans.