different between feral vs truculent

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f???l/, /?f????l/
• Rhymes: -?r?l, -????l
• Homophone: Farrell (Mary–marry–merry merger)

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.

Derived terms

• feral child
• feral cat

Translations

Noun

feral (plural ferals)

1. A domesticated animal that has returned to the wild; an animal, particularly a domesticated animal, living independently of humans.
   • 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)

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

Derived terms

• feral child
• feral cat

Usage notes

• 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

Spanish

Etymology

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

Adjective

feral (plural ferales)

1. feral

Related terms

• fiero

English

Etymology

First attested circa 1540, from Middle French, from Latin truculentus (“fierce, savage”), from trux (“fierce, wild”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: \tr?k'-y?-l?nt\, IPA^(key): /?t??kj?l?nt/

Adjective

truculent (comparative more truculent, superlative most truculent)

1. Cruel or savage.

   The truculent soldiers gave us a steely-eyed stare.

2. Deadly or destructive.
3. Defiant or uncompromising.
4. Eager or quick to argue, fight or start a conflict.
   • 1992, Joel Feinberg, “The Social Importance of Moral Rights” in Philosophical Perspectives VI (Ethics, 1992), page 195:

     It is an important source of the value of moral rights then that?—?speaking very generally?—?they dispose people with opposed interests to be reasonable rather than arrogant and truculent.

   • 2010, Seal Team 6 Member, in Esquire Magazine "The Man Who Killed Osama bin Laden..."[1]

     (Refering to women in Bin Laden’s compound) “These bitches is getting truculent.”

Quotations

• 1847, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, ch VI,

  In her turn, Helen Burns asked me to explain, and I proceeded forthwith to pour out, in my own way, the tale of my sufferings and resentments. Bitter and truculent when excited, I spoke as I felt, without reserve or softening.

• 1860–1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, ch XLVI,

  She really was a most charming girl, and might have passed for a captive fairy, whom that truculent Ogre, Old Barley, had pressed into his service.

• 1877, Leo Tolstoy (author), David Magarshack (translator), Anna Karenina, part 6, ch 12,

  She might pity herself, but he must not pity her. She did not want any quarrel; she blamed him for wanting one, but she could not help assuming a truculent attitude.

• 1895, H. G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance, ch 10,

  Most of them were little dramatic situations, crucial dialogues, the return of Mr. Hoopdriver to his native village, for instance, in a well-cut holiday suit and natty gloves, the unheard asides of the rival neighbours, the delight of the old ‘mater’, the intelligence—“A ten-pound rise all at once from Antrobus, mater. Whad d’yer think of that?” or again, the first whispering of love, dainty and witty and tender, to the girl he served a few days ago with sateen, or a gallant rescue of generalised beauty in distress from truculent insult or ravening dog.

• 1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Beasts of Tarzan, ch 10,

  If he came too close to a she with a young baby, the former would bare her great fighting fangs and growl ominously, and occasionally a truculent young bull would snarl a warning if Tarzan approached while the former was eating.

• 1922, Rafael Sabatini, Captain Blood: His Odyssy, ch XVI,

  Cahusac appeared to be having it all his own way, and he raised his harsh, querulous voice so that all might hear his truculent denunciation.

• 1925, Richard Henry Tawney, “Introduction”, to Thomas Wilson A discourse upon usury by way of dialogue and orations: for the better variety and more delight of all those that shall read this treatise (1572); Classics of social and political science Page 2

  Whatever his prejudices—and his book shows that they were tough—the most truculent of self-made capitalists could not have criticised him as a child in matters of finance. He had tried commercial cases, negotiated commercial treaties, …

Synonyms

• (cruel or savage): barbarous, cruel, ferocious, fierce, savage
• (deadly or destructive): deadly, destructive
• (defiant or uncompromising): defiant, inflexible, stubborn, uncompromising, unyielding
• (eager or quick to argue, fight or start a conflict): belligerent

Related terms

• truculence
• truculency
• truculently

Translations

See also

• belligerent

Anagrams

• unclutter

French

Etymology

From Latin truculentus (“fierce, savage”), from trux (“fierce, wild”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t?y.ky.l??/

Adjective

truculent (feminine singular truculente, masculine plural truculents, feminine plural truculentes)

1. violent or belligerent in a colorful, over-the-top or memorable fashion
2. picturesque

Verb

truculent

1. third-person plural present indicative of truculer
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of truculer

Further reading

• “truculent” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Romanian

Etymology

From French truculent, from Latin truculentus.

Adjective

truculent m or n (feminine singular truculent?, masculine plural truculen?i, feminine and neuter plural truculente)

1. truculent

Declension