Talk:Ferula communis

Error of fact, or grammar[edit]

The second sentence of this article must be erroneous. It seems to be missing the word “not”. Currently, it reads, “It is related to common fennel, which belongs to another genus, Foeniculum,” but I think it should read, “It is not related to common fennel, which belongs to another genus, Foeniculum.” Please have this checked by a botanist. I am an old English teacher. Janice Vian, Ph.D. (talk) 03:44, 12 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Ferula Communis In Mythology[edit]

Hi! I was intrigued by the references to mythology, and decided to do a bit more digging. It looks like there's a lot more history here, which might be worth including in an encyclopedia. Among other tidbits, I found that the plant is a symbol of Dionysus-- rods or wands made from its' branches were used in ceremonies.

A lot of the information I found is readily available with a quick google search. After five minutes of poking around, I found so much that-- rather than just add it all in piecemeal-- I decided to hold off. We have a few options here;

We could leave the article as it currently is
We could include all of the relevant info in a new section
We could create an entirely new article
We could add the info to various different articles where appropriate, and link to it here.

I favor the fourth suggestion.

Atomic putty? Rien! (talk)  (talk) 20:29, 28 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Fanciful Latin etymology[edit]

The article says that Latin ferio comes from ferula. This is not true. The two Latin words are not related, as far as anybody knows. Imerologul Valah (talk) 19:17, 14 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The Swedish dictionary cited in the article does support the etymology given. With some help from Google Translate, the source says

[ Old Swedish färla, like d. ferle from Lat. ferula, the umbellate plant Ferula communis Lin. (whose tall, gnarled stem was used for sticks and rods), related to ferire, to beat... ]

That seems to be adequate reliable source support for the statement in the article.

I don't know Latin. The article doesn't mention ferio but rather ferire ("to hit"). Is ferio a form of ferire? Or is ferire not Latin? The dictionary cited does not say that it is. Perhaps ferire is Old Swedish??--Srleffler (talk) 19:47, 14 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, ferio is the 1st person singular present indicative active of ferīre. (This is the form which is generally used to look up verbs in Latin dictionaries.) But, with all due respect for Swedish dictionaries, the proper place to look for the etymology of Latin words is a Latin dictionary, not a Swedish one. For what it's worth, not even Wiktionary makes any connection between the two Latin words. Imerologul Valah (talk) 22:37, 18 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]