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ferocious

fuh-ROH-shuhs · adjective

LatinEnglish

Origin

Ferocious comes from Latin ferōx, meaning wild, bold, savage, or fierce, with the English suffix -ous added to turn it into an adjective.

Journey

The word was formed by taking that Latin root wholesale and dressing it in an English ending, a straightforward borrowing rather than a shift in meaning.

Related words

The facts here don't point to any specific English cognate of ferōx, so none is claimed.

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From Latin

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