Etymology

fierce

F4I1E1R1C3E1

Today it means: Exceedingly violent, severe, ferocious, cruel or savage. Full definition →

Middle English fers ← Old French fers ← Latin ferus
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromferus“wild", "untamed”
  2. Old French · derived fromfers“wild", "ferocious”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromfers
  4. English todayfierce

From Middle English fers, fiers, borrowed from Old French fers (“wild", "ferocious”), nominative of fer, from Latin ferus (“wild", "untamed”).

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishfers all →

fers

Latinferus all →

ferae naturaeferousfierasfer

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.