feral

See also: féral

English

Feral cats on Big Island, Hawaii

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French féral, from fer + -al, or borrowed from a Late Latin ferālis, from Latin ferus (“wild”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɛɹəl/, /ˈfɪəɹəl/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛrəl, -ɪəɹəl
• Homophone: Farrell

Adjective

feral (comparative more feral, superlative most feral)

1. Wild, untamed, especially of domesticated animals having returned to the wild.
2. (of a person) Contemptible, unruly, misbehaved.

Hyponyms

• feral child
• feral cat
• razorback

Derived terms

• feral child
• feral cat

Translations

wild, untamed, especially of domesticated animals having returned to the wild

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: див (bg) (div), неопитомен (neopitomen)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 野生的 (zh) (yěshēng de)

• Dutch: verwilderd (nl), wild (nl)
• Finnish: villi (fi), villiintynyt (fi)
• French: féral (fr), marron (fr), (cat) haret (fr)
• German: wild (de), verwildert (de)
• Greek: άγριος (el) m (ágrios)
• Italian: selvaggio (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Malay: jalang, feral
• Maori: mohowao
• Persian: وحشی (fa) (vahši)
• Polish: zdziczały (pl) m, dziki (pl) m
• Portuguese: silvestre (pt)
• Russian: ди́кий (ru) (díkij), одичавший (ru) (odičavšij)
• Spanish: ferino (es) m, feroz (es), fiero (es) m, cimarrón (es) m, montaraz (es) m, salvaje (es) m, bravo (es) m
• Swedish: förvildad
• Thai: ดุร้าย (th) (dù ráai), ไม่เชื่อง (mâi chêuang)
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can

Noun

feral (plural ferals)

1. A domesticated animal that has returned to the wild; an animal, particularly a domesticated animal, living independently of humans.
   • 1960 May 19, “Notes and Comments: No homes for the pigeons”, in New Scientist, page 1261:

     Although it is not difficult to induce domestic pigeons to nest in boxes fixed to trees, London′s ferals are not yet acclimatized to arboreal holes.

   • 2005, Alexandra Powe Allred, Cats' Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Mysterious Mousers, Talented Tabbies, and Feline Oddities, unnumbered page,

     Traffic, abuse, inhumane traps, and accidental poisoning are other hazards ferals must face. […] In England one gamekeeper claimed to have killed over three hundred ferals, while another brought home pelts to his wife so that she could design rugs from cat skins as a source of secondary income.

   • 2007, Clea Simon, Cries and Whiskers, page 26,

     You trap ferals, neuter them, and give them their rabies shot. Maybe distemper.

   • 2011, Gina Spadafori, Paul D. Pion, Cats for Dummies, unnumbered page,

     If you′ve ever put a saucer of milk out for a hard-luck kitty, or if you′re spending your lunch hour sharing sandwiches with the ferals near your office, this is the chapter for you.

2. (Australia, colloquial) A contemptible young person, a lout, a person who behaves wildly.
3. (Australia, colloquial) A person who has isolated themselves from the outside world; one living an alternative lifestyle.
   • 1995, Bill Metcalf, From Utopian Dreaming to Communal Reality: Cooperative Lifestyles in Australia, page 82,

     The intolerance which was directed towards us during the early years has now shifted to ‘the ferals’ who embrace a new version of nonconformist behaviour that even some of us in their parent′s generation — the Aquarian settlers — don′t like. The ferals are the scapegoats for the drug problems here, and are highly visible since many of them have nowhere to live.

   • 2002, Shane Maloney, Something Fishy, 2003, page 208,

     A pod of ferals was moving towards the exit, a half-dozen soap-shy, low-tech, bush-dwelling hippies.

   • 2010, Anna Krien, Into The Woods: The Battle For Tasmania's Forests, page 102,

     It′s the rootlessness of the ferals that people don′t seem to trust; their claims of connectedness to all wild places touches a nerve. Even residents of Maydena who want to see the Florentine protected dislike the ratbags′ itinerancy.

4. (furry subculture) A character in furry art or literature which has the physical characteristics (body) of a regular animal (typically quadripedal), that may or may not be able to communicate with humans or anthros (contrasts anthro)

   A lot of furries I know don't particularly like feral characters.

   The story is about a group of ferals which have to explore the ruins of society after the humans die out.

Usage notes

• The term should not be confused with feral child, a child raised with little or no human assistance.
• Feral in the furry-related sense can refer to both regular animals as well as characters which have the bodies of regular animals but the intelligence of a human. Intelligent feral characters are often depicted as speaking with other characters, but may only be able to speak with other ferals and not humans or anthros due to a language barrier.

Anagrams

• flare

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Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from a Late Latin ferālis, from Latin ferus (“wild”), or formed from fiero +‎ -al.

Adjective

feral m or f (masculine and feminine plural ferales)

1. feral

Related terms

• fiero