selvaggio

Forms

selvaggio (feminine selvaggia, masculine plural selvaggi, feminine plural selvagge)^[1] As a noun it is masculine, feminine selvaggia.^[2] The old and poetic form salvaggio survives in literature, and Old Italian also had salvazo, sarvagio, selvazo and silvaggio.^[3][4][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan salvatge.^[5][6][7][1] DELI, Nocentini and GRADIT also name Old French salvage, recorded in 1149.^[5][6][7] Both come from Late Latin salvāticus, the Late Latin form of classical Latin silvāticus (“of the woods”).^[5][4][1] The Latin adjective is formed from silva (“wood, forest”) with -āticus.^[8][1] De Vaan finds no etymology for the noun.^[9]

Italian kept the Latin word in its inherited form as selvatico and salvatico.^[6][10][1] It also gave French sauvage and Romanian sălbatic, and the Provençal word is the source of Spanish salvaje and Portuguese salvagem.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the word to before 1250 and DEI to the 13th century.^[7][11] DELI's first records are in Dante, of plants and animals that live in the woods and of places without cultivation or human life.^[5] The GDLI quotes Nocco de' Cenni on a tree that is silvàggio, bearing no good fruit unless it is grafted.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the word of the wild beasts that shun the tilled land between Cecina and Corneto, and in a political sense: la parte selvaggia is the faction of the Whites, led by the Cerchi, who had come from the countryside.^[12][13] In the Purgatorio he also uses it of a crowd that seemed unfamiliar with the place, a sense now only literary.^[7][14] The sense “inhuman, cruel” is recorded before 1449 in Giusto de' Conti.^[5]

The adjective was then applied to peoples living outside civilisation: Ca' da Mosto uses it so before 1488.^[5] The noun selvaggio, “savage”, followed in the late 18th century.^[6][5] Leopardi called his birthplace natio borgo selvaggio, “wild native village”.^[14][13] The word has also come to mean unregulated or indiscriminate, as in sciopero selvaggio, a wildcat strike.^[14][7]

Timeline

• 1149 – Old French salvage is recorded.^[5]
• Before 1250 – first record of Italian selvaggio.^[7]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses selvaggio of wild animals and places.^[5]
• Early 14th century – the derivative salvaggina, game, appears in the Italian Marco Polo.^[5]
• Before 1449 – Giusto de' Conti uses the word for “cruel”.^[5]
• Before 1488 – Ca' da Mosto uses it of primitive peoples.^[5]
• 1787 – the noun selvaggio is first recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a place, wild, uncultivated, without human presence; also rugged or forbidding: una costa selvaggia.^[7][13][15]
2. (literary) Of plants and animals, wild, not cultivated or tamed.^[7][13][15]
3. Of peoples, living outside civilisation, primitive.^[15][14][3]
4. Rough, uncouth.^[14][3]
5. (figurative) ferocious, cruel, violent: una furia selvaggia.^[14][1]
6. Unregulated, indiscriminate: sciopero selvaggio.^[7][14]
7. (literary) Unfamiliar with a place, a stranger.^[7][14][15]
8. (medicine) Of a microorganism, in its natural state, with its full power to cause disease.^[7][16]

Noun

1. A savage: a member of a people living outside civilisation; also an uncivil, rough person.^[1][3][17]

Word family

• selvaggina
• selvaggiamente
• inselvaggire
• selvaggiume
• semiselvaggio

Related words

• selvatico
• selva
• Latin silvaticus
• French sauvage

Usage notes

Il buon selvaggio is the noble savage.^[7] Of plants and animals the word is literary or uncommon, and its synonym selvatico is the usual word.^[14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
3. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3446
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org