ferm

• ferme

See farm.

• IPA^(key): /fɜː(ɹ)m/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)m
• Homophone: firm

ferm (countable and uncountable, plural ferms)

1. (obsolete) rent for a farm

   He let his land to ferm.

2. (obsolete) a farm
3. (obsolete) an abode or place of residence
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Out of her fleshly ferme fled to the place of paine..

• REMF, frem

Inherited from Latin firmus.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈfɛrm]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈfərm]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [ˈfeɾm]

ferm (feminine ferma, masculine plural ferms, feminine plural fermes)

1. firm (steadfast, secure)

   Synonym: fix

2. firm (fixed in opinion)

   Synonym: fix

3. firm (solid, rigid)

• fermament
• fermesa

ferm m (plural ferms)

1. pavement (US), road surface (UK) (paved exterior surface)

• “ferm” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “ferm”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2024
• “ferm” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “ferm” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Borrowed from Sicilian fermu.

• IPA^(key): /fɛrm/

ferm (feminine singular ferma, plural fermi or friem, comparative ifrem)

1. strong, well-built

   Synonym: sħiħ

2. steady, constant
   • 2022, Alfred Massa, Il-Ħarba, Horizons, →ISBN, page 5:

     Dan minħabba l-interess li dejjem wera għat-tagħlim ferm qabel il-Griegi u r-Rumani.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

ferm

1. (Late Middle English) Alternative form of ferme (“lease”)

ferm

1. Alternative form of ferme (“firm”)

• furm (Tristan, Thomas d'Angleterre)

From Latin firmus.

ferm m (oblique and nominative feminine singular ferme)

1. firm

• enferm
• fermeté, ferté

• Middle French: ferme
  • French: ferme
• → Middle English: ferme, ferm
  • English: firm (remodelled after Latin)
    • → Cantonese: firm
  • Scots: firm (remodelled after Latin)

New Latin; named for Enrico Fermi.

• IPA^(key): /fɛrm/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛrm
• Syllabification: ferm

ferm m inan

1. fermium

• ferm in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from French ferme.

ferm m or n (feminine singular fermă, masculine plural fermi, feminine and neuter plural ferme)

1. firm

From Middle English ferme, from Anglo-Norman and Old French ferme, from Medieval Latin firma, from Old English fearm (“sustenance, food, supplies”).

• IPA^(key): [fɛrm], [ferm]

ferm (plural ferms)

1. a farm

• “ferm” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.