savagery

Etymology

It is formed from English savage + -ry,^[2][3][4][5] or, in the Shorter Oxford's analysis, from the verb savage and -ery.^[6] The OED notes the earlier savageness, and that the pronunciations with and without the middle vowel reflect the variation between -ry and -ery.^[3] Savage is from Old French sauvage (“wild, untamed”), from Late Latin salvaticus, an alteration of Latin silvaticus (“of the woods”), from silva (“forest, wood”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality of being fierce or cruel: Etymonline dates it to the 1590s, and the Shorter Oxford to the late 16th century.^[2][6] The OED's first record is in Shakespeare's King John, written before 1616 and printed in 1623: "This is the bloodiest shame, The wildest savagery".^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Shakespeare also used the word for wild, rank vegetation in Henry V, a sense no one took up after him.^[3][6][7] Johnson (1755) gave both Shakespearean senses, "cruelty; barbarity" and "wild growth".^[7] The sense of an uncivilized state of society is recorded from 1782 by the OED, and by 1825 by Etymonline.^[3][2] In the 19th century the word was also used for savage people or animals collectively (1822) and for wildness of scenery (1843).^[3][6]

Timeline

• 1590s – the quality of being fierce or cruel; a cruel act.^[2][6][3]
• before 1616 – wild vegetation (obsolete).^[3][6]
• 1782 – the condition of being uncivilized; a primitive state of society.^[3]
• 1822 – savage people or animals collectively (rare by 1897).^[3][6]
• 1843 – wildness of country or scenery.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Fierce or cruel behaviour; brutality: the savagery of the attack.^[8][4][3]
2. A cruel or violent act.^[4][3][8]
3. An uncivilized or primitive state of society.^[8][4][3]
4. Wildness of country or scenery.^[4][3][6]
5. (obsolete) Wild, rank vegetation.^[3][6][7]

Related words

• savage
• sylvan

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins