Etymograph

English

wild

Wild comes from Old English wilde ‘wild, savage’, from Proto-Germanic *wilþijaz ‘wild’, whose deeper origin is disputed.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wilþijaz‘wild’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wilþī‘wild’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150wilde‘wild, savage’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500weilde
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1527–1542wild

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wilþijaz‘wild’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wilþī‘wild’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150wilde‘wild, savage’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500weilde
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1527–1542wild

Earliest quotation: c. 1527–1542, Thomas Wyatt, Who so list to hounte: “noli me tangere for Ceſars I ame and wylde…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- ‘hair’

value, equivalent, valid, wool, velvet, valuation, vale, valiant, avail, fluff, flannel, valour, vail, cuckold, wield, velour, lanolin, valorous, woll, 44 more

Today it means

adj Especially, being of the wild type: being of an unbroken ancestral line of undomesticated animals, as opposed to being feral, being an undomesticated animal whose ancestors were domesticated.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *wilþijaz / wild

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