wild

WYLD

Uncontrolled, undomesticated, self-willed. A wild animal is not an animal without order — it is an animal whose order is its own. The word carries a charge that domesticated and natural do not. Something wild has not been consulted about our plans for it.

Etymology

Old English wilde (wild, untamed, uncontrolled), from Proto-Germanic *wilþijaz, possibly from PIE root *welt- (wooded, wild). Related to Old Norse villr and German wild.

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