fere

See also: fêre and fərə

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɪə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɪɹ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /fiːɹ/
• Rhymes: -ɪə(ɹ)
• Homophone: fear

Etymology 1

From Middle English fere, from (Northumbrian) Old English fǣra, aphetic form of ġefēra (whence also Middle English y-fere).

Alternative forms

• pheer, feer

Noun

fere (plural feres)

1. (dialectal or obsolete) A companion, comrade or friend.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book V:

     they swange oute their swerdis and slowe of noble men of armys mo than an hondred – and than they rode ayen to theire ferys.

2. (archaic) A person's spouse, or an animal's mate.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 52:

     And Cambel tooke Cambrina to his fere.

   • 1830, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Supposed Confessions of a Second-Rate Sensitive Mind:

     The lamb rejoiceth in the year, / And raceth freely with his fere, / And answers to his mother’s calls / From the flower’d furrow.

   • 1864, George MacDonald, The Old Nurse's Story:

     What if my Duncan be the youth whom his wicked brother hurled into the ravine, come again in a new body, to live out his life on the earth, cut short by his brother’s hatred? If so, his persecution of you, and of your mother for your sake, is easy to understand. And if so, you will never be able to rest till you find your fere, wherever she may have been born on the face of the earth.

Derived terms

• ferede

Etymology 2

From Middle English fer, from Anglo-Norman fer, from Old French fier. Compare Latin ferus (“wild”).

Adjective

fere (comparative more fere, superlative most fere)

1. (obsolete) Fierce.
   • 1880, Richard Francis Burton, Os Lusíadas, volume II, page 405:

     Man's flesh they eat: their own they paint and sear, / branding with burning iron, — usage fere!

Anagrams

• -free, Free, feer, free, reef

Aromanian

Preposition

fere

1. alternative form of fãrã.

Related terms

• nafore

See also

• chend

Galician

Verb

fere

1. third-person singular present indicative of ferir
2. (reintegrationist norm) inflection of ferir:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Latin

Etymology 1

From Proto-Italic *feros, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer-o- (“tight, close by”), a derivative of *dʰer- (“to hold”). Cognates include firmus.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈfɛ.reː], [ˈfɛ.rɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈfɛː.re]

Note: this frequent and colloquial word normally undergoes iambic shortening of the last syllable in Plautus, but is kept long in Classical dactylic verse for archaic effect; it becomes short again in Late Latin.

Adverb

ferē̆ (not comparable)

1. (close enough) roughly, approximately, mostly, more or less, around, about

   Synonym: fermē

   sōlis ferē̆ occāsū

   around sundown

   • 1st c. BC, Marcus Tullius Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum 1.6.2:

     haec habēbam ferē̆ quae tē scīre vellem

     this is more or less everything I wanted to tell you

2. (indistinguishable from) nearly, practically, virtually, almost, well-nigh, quite

   Synonyms: fermē, prope, paene, iū̆xtā

   haud ferē̆ quisquam

   hardly anybody

3. (in general) often, normally, usually, generally, as a rule, in most cases, mainly

   Synonyms: fermē, plērumque, vulgō

   ut ferē̆ fit

   as often happens; as usual

Derived terms

• fermē

Etymology 2

From for.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈfeː.rɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈfɛː.re]

Verb

fēre

1. alternative form of fēris, second-person singular present active subjunctive of for

References

• “ferē” on page 752 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)

Further reading

• “fere”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “fere”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “fere”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to translate freely: his fere verbis, hoc fere modo convertere, transferre
    
  • (ambiguous) synonyms: vocabula idem fere declarantia
    
  • (ambiguous) to talk of a subject which was then the common topic of conversation: in eum sermonem incidere, qui tum fere multis erat in ore
    
  • (ambiguous) as usually happens: ut fit, ita ut fit, ut fere fit
    
  • (ambiguous) he spoke (very much) as follows: haec (fere) dixit
    
  • (ambiguous) this is very much what Cicero said: haec Ciceronis fere
    

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English fǣr, from Proto-West Germanic *fāru, from Proto-Germanic *fērō.

Alternative forms

• fer, feer, feere

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɛːr/

Noun

fere (plural feris)

1. fear

Related terms

• feren

Descendants

• English: fear
• Scots: fere, feir
• Yola: vear

References

• “fēr, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

From Old English feorh, from Proto-West Germanic *ferh, from Proto-Germanic *ferhuz.

Noun

fere (uncountable)

1. life

References

• “fẹ̄re, n.(4)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Norman

Alternative forms

• féther (Jersey)

Etymology

fé (“iron”) +‎ -er

Verb

fere

1. (Sark) to iron

Nupe

Etymology

Compare Yoruba fèrè.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fè.ɾè/

Noun

fèrè (plural fèrèzhì)

1. small whistle; flute