Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Formido

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

FORMI'DO. A sort of scarecrow, employed by huntsmen for the purpose of driving their prey in a particular direction, to where the toils were laid. It consisted of a long line stretched across any given district, to which a number of feathers of different colours were attached; and as these fluttered in the wind, they frightened the animals, and deterred them from retreating towards the site where the scarecrow was exhibited. (Grat. 85. 88. Nemes. 304. Virg. Aen. xii. 750. Senec. Ira. ii. 12.) Hence the allusion of Horace (Sat. i. 8. 3.), when he terms Priapus the terror of thieves — furum formido.