fers

See also: FERS, f***ers, Ferš, and fərş

English

Alternative forms

• ferz

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle English fers, from Old French fierce, from Medieval Latin ferzia, from Classical Persian فَرْزِین (farzīn).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɜːz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɜɹz/
• Homophone: furs
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)z

Noun

fers (plural ferses)

1. (chess, historical) The medieval chess piece that developed into the modern queen.
   • 1898 January, A. A. McDonald, “The Origin and Early History of Chess”, in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society‎^[1], volume 30, number 1, London: Royal Asiatic Society, →DOI, →ISBN, page 138:

     With their introduction the fers and the alfil disappeared from European chess.

   • 1979 [1960], R. C. Bell, “War Games”, in Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations‎^[2], 2nd edition, New York: Dover Publications, →ISBN, page 71:

     In the Chronique of Philip Mouskat (a.d. 1243), lines 23617–20, is a reference to a king of Fierges, indicating that a fers could be promoted to a king at this early period.

   • 2015 September, Nancy Marie Brown, Ivory Vikings: The Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them‎^[3], New York: St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 112:

     This fers mates him in straight lines; this fers mates him at an angle.

2. (chess) A fairy chess piece that moves one square diagonally.
   • 2010 August 21, G. P. Jelliss, “Simple Chess Variants”, in Mayhematics‎^[4], pages 4, 10:

     In Monochromatic chess moves are only allowed between cells of the same colour. Thus the kings are reduced to ferses, the rooks to dabbabariders, and the knights to dummies. […] Another type of rider is the Mao which is the knight in Chinese chess. It makes its move in two steps, a noncapturing wazir move followed by a fers move, so the cell moved through must be vacant. The Moa (W.Speckman) is a knight that moves as fers followed by wazir.

References

• S. Emmerson, A Glossary of Fairy Chess Definitions

Catalan

Adjective

fers

1. masculine plural of fer

Cornish

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle English fers (“fierce”), from Old French fers (“wild, ferocious”), nominative of fer, from Latin ferus (“wild, untamed”).

Adjective

fers

1. fierce

   Synonyms: garow, gwyls

References

• “fers” in Cornish Dictionary / Gerlyver Kernewek, Akademi Kernewek.

Crimean Gothic

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *firhwijaz. Krause & Slocum argue that the ending may reflect the Proto-Germanic nominative singular ending *-az.

Noun

fers

1. man
   • 1589, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, letter:

     Fers. Vir.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

French

Noun

fers m

1. plural of fer

Anagrams

• serf

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈfɛrs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈfɛrs]

Verb

fers

1. second-person singular present active indicative of ferō

Middle English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French fers, fiers, nominative of fer, fier, from Latin ferus.

The form fuerse, furse possibly indicates a pronunciation such as /føːrs/ or /fyːrs/, with rounding of /eː/ due to the surrounding /f/ and /r/.

Alternative forms

• feers, ferce, ferse, fiers, fierse, firs, fyers, fyerse
• fuerse, furse (Lancashire); frese (Rutland)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /feːrs/

Adjective

fers (plural and weak singular ferse)

1. brave, bold
2. arrogant, haughty
3. fierce, savage
4. severe, devastating

Derived terms

• fersly
• fersnesse

Descendants

• English: fierce
• Yola: fearse

References

• “fẹ̄rs, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Old French fierce, from Medieval Latin ferzia, from Persian فرزین (farzin).

Alternative forms

• ffers

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /feːrs/

Noun

fers (plural ferses)

1. queen (chess piece) or predecessor thereof

Descendants

• → English: fers, ferz

References

• “fẹ̄rs, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Old English

Alternative forms

• færs, fyrs, uers

Etymology

From Latin versus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fers/, [ferˠs]

Noun

fers n

1. verse
2. sentence, title

Declension

Strong a-stem:

	singular	plural
nominative	fers	fers
accusative	fers	fers
genitive	ferses	fersa
dative	ferse	fersum

Derived terms

• bēodfers (“song or hymn sung during mealtime”)
• fersian (“to make verse”)
• meterfers (“hexameter”)

References

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “fers”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Old Irish

Etymology

From Latin versus.

Noun

fers m (genitive ferso or fersa, nominative plural fersai)

1. verse
   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 137^b7

     Is he in fers-[s]o ro·gab Ch[i]rine oc techt i mBethil .i. haec requies rl. "Bid fír æm," olsesom, "is sunt bia-sa in eilithri co llae messa."

     This is the verse that Jerome sang as he went into Bethlehem, namely, haec requies and so on; “it will indeed be true,” he says: “it is here that I will be in pilgrimage until the Day of Judgement.”

   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 111^d1

     Noch ní accam isint saltair in fers n-ísin.

     However, we do not see that verse in the Psalter.

Inflection

Masculine u-stem

	singular	dual	plural
nominative	fers	fersL	fersaeH, fersai
vocative	fers	fersL	fersu
accusative	fersN	fersL	fersu
genitive	fersoH, fersaH	fersoL, fersaL	fersaeN
dative	fersL	fersaib	fersaib

Initial mutations of a following adjective:

• ^H = triggers aspiration
• ^L = triggers lenition
• ^N = triggers nasalization

Mutation

Mutation of fers

radical	lenition	nasalization
fers	ḟers	fers pronounced with /β̃ʲ-/

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “fers”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language