adj.
- fierce, violent, and uncontrolled.
▸cruel and vicious.
- primitive; uncivilized.
- (of a place) wild; uncultivated.
n.
- a member of a people regarded as primitive and uncivilized.
- a brutal or vicious person.
- Heraldry a representation of a bearded and semi-naked man with a wreath of leaves.
v.
- (especially of a dog) attack ferociously.
- criticize brutally.
Derivative
- savagely adv.
- savageness n.
- savagery n.
Etymology
ME: from OFr. sauvage ‘wild’, from L. silvaticus ‘of the woods’, from silva ‘a wood’.