ETYMOLOGY
from Latin ferinus, from fera (wild beast)
EXAMPLE (for adj. 1)
“… Secondly there are brutish and unnaturall Desires, which the Philosopher calleth ferine and inhumane, instancing in those barbarous Countries, where they use to eat mens flesh and raw meat; and in the Woman who ripped up Women with childe that shee might eat their young ones: …”
From: A Treatise of the Passions and Faculties of the Soule of Man
By Edward Reynolds, 1640
Lexicophilia 