fĕrĭtas, ātis, f. [ferus], wildness, fierceness, savageness, roughness.
I Lit., of beasts or men (rare but class. in prose and poetry): ista in figura hominis feritas et immanitas beluae, etc., Cic. Off. 3, 6, 32: tauri, Ov. F. 4, 103: leonis, id. ib. 4, 217: magnitudo animi, remota a communitate conjunctioneque humana feritas est quaedam et immanitas, Cic. Off. 1, 44, 157; cf. id. Div. 1, 29, 60: qui primi dissipatos unum in locum congregarunt eosque ex feritate illa ad justitiam atque mansuetudinem transduxerunt, from the savage state , id. Sest. 42, 91; cf. Ov. F. 3, 281: quorum civitas . . . cultu et feritate non multum a Germanis differebat, Hirt. B. G. 8, 25 fin. ; Sen. Clem. 2, 4: neque ipse manus feritate dedisset, * Verg. A. 11, 568 al.—
II Transf., of things (perh. only poet. and in post-Aug. prose): Scythici loci, Ov. P. 2, 2, 112; cf.: inamoena viae, Stat. S. 2, 2, 33: mitigata arboris, Plin. 16, 12, 23, § 61: mentae, Col. 11, 3, 37: nimia musti, Plin. 14, 20, 25, § 124.