Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word feles. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word feles, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say feles in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word feles you have here. The definition of the word feles will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition offeles, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Unknown; maybe cognate with Welshbele(“marten”).
Other sources say that it is related to Latinfulica, fulix, with the etymological meaning of "animal with a shiny coat", but this theory is doubtful. The connection with Latinfēlix(“happy”) and Latinfēllō(“to suck”), with the (hypothetical) etymological meaning of “animal that sucks the blood ”, was also proposed. This word could be cognate with Latinmēlēs(“badger”), under the assumption of a very unusual alternation of /f/ (or earlier */β/) and /m/, which might be an indication of substrate origin.
Quorum inbutae mentes pravitatis erroribus quamvis carnificinam prius subierint quam ibim aut aspidem aut faelem aut canem aut corcodillum violenti quorum etiamsi inprudentes quippiam fecerint, poenam nullam recusent.
Their minds being tainted by pernicious opinions, they are ready to bear any torture rather than hurt an ibis, a snake, a cat, a dog, or a crocodile; and should any one inadvertently have hurt any of these animals, he will submit to any punishment.
Whenever the cat runs away, she is accustomed to fart badly.
1556, Conrad Gessner, Aeliani de natura animalium, Liber VI, Cap. XXVII, p. 336:
Quemadmodum ex felibus mas est libidinosissimus, sic amantissima catulorum femina; quae veneream idcirco maris consuetudinem refugit, quod is calidissimum ignisque simile semen emittat, genitale ut feminae conburat.
Just as out of the cats, the male is most libidinous, so too is the female of kittens most affectionate; and on that account she runs away from sexual intercourse with the male because he emits the hottest semen like fire, and so burns up the genital organ of the female.
1607, Antoine Mizauld, Opusculorum pars secunda, page 72v:
Capitale fuisse apud Aegyptios felem sponte, vel casu occidisse, Diodorus perpulchram demonstrat historiam, suos oculos ac fidem in testimonium adducens, ne putetur esse fabula.
Diodorus describes, bringing his eyes as well as his faith into the telling lest it be thought a fable, a very beautiful account that among the Egyptians it was punishable by death to deliberately or by accident kill a cat.
Usage notes
Fēlis is the genitive singular form of fēlēs, but it is also an alternate nominative and vocative form of fēlēs.
^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN
“feles”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“feles”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
feles in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.