Etymology and origin of the Catalan word fer
fer1 to do, make
Etymology tree of fer1
Pronunciation
Forms
fer (first-person singular present faig, first-person singular preterite fiu, past participle fet)[1] The verb is irregular: present faig, fas, fa, fem, feu, fan; imperfect feia; past fiu, feres, féu; future faré; present subjunctive faci; imperfect subjunctive fes; past participle fet.[2] Old Catalan also had a form far.[3] In the 12th century the third person of the past is written fet or féd.[3] In Roussillon the infinitive is fers, and in the Pallars Sobirà it has an open vowel.[3]
Etymology
The verb meaning to do or make is inherited from Latin faciō (“to make, do”).[3][4][5][6][1] Coromines explains that its infinitive ⟨facere⟩ was pronounced ⟨faere⟩ in quick speech in late Vulgar Latin, because the verb was used almost as an auxiliary; this was later reduced to ⟨faire⟩, which gave the Catalan form by the regular sound changes of Catalan.[3] The GDLC and Bruguera follow this explanation.[6][5] Coromines no longer accepts the Vulgar Latin base ⟨*fagere⟩ that Meyer-Lübke and others supposed.[3]
The same Latin verb is French faire, Occitan faire, Italian fare, Spanish hacer, Portuguese fazer and Romanian face.[7] The shorter form ⟨*fare⟩ gave Old Occitan far and the Italian form.[3] Old Spanish fer was common until the end of the 13th century, chiefly in the east of Castile, and the Gascon of the Pyrenees has ⟨hè⟩, written ⟨fer⟩ in a document of 1189.[3][8]
The Latin verb continues *fakjō, from *dʰh₁k-yé-ti (“to put, place”).[1] The OLD compares τίθημι (títhēmi).[9]
Earliest recorded meaning
The infinitive fer already appears in a document of 1030.[3] In the lawsuit between the Bishop of Urgell and Ramon Gombau over Guissona, of about 1050, a Latin text has Catalan forms of the verb: si-n fan batalla, “if they do battle over it”.[3] In the Homilies d'Organyà the blind man who has been healed féd grans gràcies, “gave great thanks”, to Our Lord.[3]
Semantic evolution
Already in the medieval texts the verb has a wide range of uses: to judge or consider (Muntaner, 1325), to make up a number (“eleven quarteres make a caffiç”, Costums de Tortosa, 1272), to slaughter and dress an animal (Vallfogona, 1393), and, followed by an infinitive, to cause an action (Antoni Genebreda, 1380).[10] Intransitively it meant “to matter”: A mi què m fa?, “what is it to me?”.[10] As in other Romance languages it was also used in place of dir, “to say”.[3] Llull uses it for the actions of God.[11]
Many derivatives are old: afer in the 13th century, desfer and contrafer in Llull, feina in Llull from the older faena, from Vulgar Latin ⟨facenda⟩, “things to be done”.[5] estrafer is first recorded in 1803.[5] Labèrnia in 1839 lists the senses to produce, to make, to carry out, to exercise and to conceive.[12]
Timeline
- 1030 – the infinitive fer in a document.[3]
- c. 1050 – fan in the lawsuit over Guissona.[3]
- late 12th century – féd grans gràcies in the Homilies d'Organyà.[3]
- 1272 – fan caffiç, “make a caffiç”, in the Costums de Tortosa.[10]
- 13th century – Llull uses fer for the actions of God;[13] desfer and contrafer first recorded.[11][5]
- 1325 – Muntaner uses it for “to judge, consider”.[10]
- 1393 – a butcher's sense, to slaughter an animal, in the ordinances of Vallfogona.[10]
- 1932 – Fabra's dictionary sets out the irregular conjugation.[13]
Meanings
Verb
- To make: to give existence to something, to build or produce it.[2][6][1]
- To do: to carry out an action or process.[1][14]
- To produce, yield or give off (of a plant, a body or a thing); to excrete.[4][1]
- To amount to, to make up (a number or a whole).[10][1]
- (followed by an infinitive) To cause something to happen; to make someone do something.[10][6]
- To pretend or act like; to play a part.[1]
- (impersonal) Of time, to have passed since something: fa dos anys, two years ago.[1]
- (pronominal) To become; to grow, to get used to.[1][4]
Word family
- afer
- contrafer
- desfer
- desfet
- desfeta
- estrafer
- faedor
- faisó
- feina
- fet
- feta
- perfer
fer2 wild
Etymology tree of fer2
From the same root · fer2
Pronunciation
Forms
fer (feminine fera, masculine plural fers, feminine plural feres)[1] In the Pyrenean dialects the masculine is pronounced fé, with the -r silent; at Tor the vowel is close, in Cardós and Vall Ferrera open.[15]
Etymology
The adjective meaning wild is inherited from Latin ferus (“wild, savage”).[15][16][6][1]
The same Latin word is French fier, Italian fiero, Spanish fiero and Occitan fèr.[17][1][18] The noun fera, “wild beast”, is the feminine used as a noun, as in the other Romance languages.[15]
De Vaan reconstructs *χwero- and connects it with *ǵʰweh₁r- (“wild animal”);[19][1] Wiktionary considers the intermediate steps uncertain.[19][1]
Earliest recorded meaning
Coromines takes the first record from Llull, who speaks of bèsties molt feres e estranyes e molt salvatges, “very wild, strange and savage beasts”, and of a thing fera a veer, “dreadful to see”.[15][11]
Semantic evolution
Joanot Martorell used the word in both senses, for wild beasts and for very fierce blows, and Jaume Roig compares a man with a lion, which is not as wild (fer) as it is painted.[15] In the modern language the word has hardly survived in popular use, except in the western and Pyrenean dialects, from Ribagorça and the Pallars to the Cardener: porc fer is the wild boar, cabra fera the chamois, and Tor de Vall Ferrera also says gat fer, ànecs fers and trumfes feres.[15]
Bruguera lists feredat (13th century, Desclot), ferotge (13th century), feréstec (14th century) and feresa (1460, Roig) among its derivatives.[16]
Timeline
- 13th century – bèsties molt feres in Llull.[15][11]
- 13th century – feredat in Desclot and ferotge in the Vides de sants.[16]
- 1460 – Jaume Roig: no 's tan brau, fer ni felló … lo lehó.[15]
- 1927 – Pal·las defines it as untamed, cruel, brutal.[20]
Meanings
Adjective
- wild, untamed (of an animal); carnivorous.[4][1]
- cruel, savage, like a wild beast.[4][20]
- Causing harm or great annoyance.[4]
- (dialectal, of plants and animals) Wild, growing or living wild: porc fer, wild boar.[15]
Word family
- fera
- feredat
- feresa
- ferest
- feréstec
- ferotge
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. fer
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 954
- ^ a b c d e f Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. fer
- ^ a b c d e Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 388
- ^ a b c d e Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. fer
- ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3128
- ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 297
- ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. faciō
- ^ a b c d e f g Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. fer
- ^ a b c d Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. fer
- ^ Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. fer
- ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. fer
- ^ Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. fer 2
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 967
- ^ a b c Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 392
- ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3264
- ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. fiero
- ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ferus
- ^ a b Vallès, Emili (1927), Pal·las: diccionari català il·lustrat, Barcelona: Salvat, p. s.v. fer
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Fer.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ca/fer. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.
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