What does "fere" mean?

A companion, comrade or friend.

What is a synonym for "fere"?

Common synonyms include: mate, mate.

//fɪə// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A companion, comrade or friend. dialectal, obsolete
"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
A person's spouse, or an animal's mate. archaic
"And Cambel tooke Cambrina to his fere."

Adjective

1
Fierce. obsolete
"Man's flesh they eat: their own they paint and sear, / branding with burning iron, — usage fere!"

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

Etymology 1

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

Etymology 2

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

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.