Fere

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic word for a companion, comrade, or mate who travels or works alongside another person
2. Old English term for a close friend, partner, or fellow who shares one's company or journey
3. A companion or partner, often a spouse or comrade, used in older English writing

Etymology: The word "fere" has two unrelated ancestors that happen to have landed in English under one spelling. The older one is a companion sense: it comes from Old English "fǣra", a shortened form of "ġefēra", meaning a companion, comrade or fellow traveller, and it survives mainly in the phrase "in fere", meaning "together". Its root is the same as that of "fare" and "farer", so a fere was literally someone who went along on the road with you. Middle English also had "yfere", a fuller form that kept the old prefix and meant the same thing. The second "fere" is a different word entirely. It comes via Middle English "fer" from Anglo-Norman "fer" and Old French "fier", and it means "fierce" or "wild", tracing back to Latin "ferus". The two words look identical on the page only by accident, and nothing links the sense of company to the sense of savagery.

Synonyms: companion, comrade, mate