feral

Etymology

It is from Latin fera (“wild beast”) with the suffix -al,^[2][3][4][5] the noun being short for fera bēstia and the feminine of ferus (“wild”).^[3][5][6][7] Merriam-Webster and Collins take it as borrowed from Medieval Latin ferālis,^[8][9] while Etymonline and Barnhart take it as borrowed from Middle French feral (“wild”),^[6][7] though Barnhart notes that it has traditionally been seen as formed in English.^[7] Etymonline traces ferus to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰwer- (“wild beast”),^[6][10] and Hoad and Weekley compare Ancient Greek θήρ (thḗr, “wild beast”) and Lithuanian žvėris.^[11][12] The Latin word is also the source of fierce and ferocious.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Like a wild animal; savage, fierce, brutal: 1604, in Thomas Wright's Passions of the Minde.^[2][8][7]

Semantic evolution

The sense "wild, untamed", of an animal, is recorded from 1659, and was also used of uncultivated plants.^[2] Etymonline notes that since the 19th century it has mostly meant "run wild after escaping from domestication",^[6] the main sense in Collins, of animals and plants that live wild after being domestic or cultivated.^[9] Merriam-Webster also uses it of a child reared apart from people and so lacking a normal human personality.^[8] In Australian slang a feral is a person with an alternative way of life, especially an unkempt environmental protester, from 1993,^[13][9] and the adjective has meant "disgusting" from 2001.^[13][9]

Timeline

• 1604 – savage, fierce, like a wild animal.^[2][8][7]
• 1639 – noun, a wild beast (obsolete).^[2]
• 1659 – of an animal, wild, untamed; of a plant, uncultivated.^[2]
• 1993 – Australian slang, a person living an alternative lifestyle.^[13]
• 2001 – Australian slang, disgusting.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of an animal or plant: living in a wild state, especially after having been domesticated or cultivated: feral pigs.^[9][6][2]
2. Like a wild animal or a beast of prey; savage or ferocious.^[8][9][2]
3. Of a child: brought up apart from other people and lacking normal human behaviour.^[8]
4. (Australian slang) Disgusting.^[9][13]

Noun

1. (Australian slang) A person who lives an alternative lifestyle and looks rough and unkempt, especially an environmental protester.^[9][13]

Related words

• fierce
• ferocious

Usage notes

A rare adjective feral meaning deadly or funereal, recorded from 1621, has a separate source, Latin fērālis (“of funeral rites or the dead”);^{[2][3][11][12]} Merriam-Webster labels it archaic.^[8] Johnson (1755) entered only this sense.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e f Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.