Noun
ferula (plural ferulas or ferulae)
- (obsolete) A ferule.
1613–1614, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, “The Two Noble Kinsmen”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):He humbles with a ferula the tall ones
- (archaic) A stroke from a cane.
- (obsolete) The imperial sceptre in the Byzantine Empire.
Etymology
Uncertain but perhaps connected to festūca (“stalk, straw”).
References
- Joan Coromines, José A. Pascual (1984) “caña”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (in Spanish), volumes I (A–Ca), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 822
- Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “fĕrŭla”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 3: D–F, page 477
- “ferula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “ferula”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- ferula in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- ferula in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- ferula in Georges, Karl Ernst, Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918) Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 1, Hahnsche Buchhandlung