Ferocity is savage fierceness. The ferocity of the attack, defend with ferocity, sheer ferocity.
It is about intensity rather than anger, which is why a storm and an argument can both have it. The Latin behind it comes from a word meaning wild, and fierce is the same root arriving in English by a different road.
1nounferocitySavage fierceness.
“The dog attacked with such ferocity that the postman dropped his bag and ran.”
ferocity is a fierceness.
The Latin is wild and fierce, the same root that gives fierce itself. Ferocity is fierceness with nothing at all held back.
hooks ontofierce
Latin ferocitas comes from ferox, fierce, from ferus, wild. Fierce and feral are relatives.
Latin
ferocitas
Middle French
férocité
English, today
ferocity
Built from
Borrowed from Middle French férocité, from Latin ferocitas, from ferox (“fierce”), from ferus (“wild, savage, fierce”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA