wilderness
WIL-der-ness
Land that has not been significantly altered by human activity — or, in the legal American definition, land designated to remain untrammeled by man, where man is a visitor who does not remain. The word contains wild and the Old English suffix -dēornes, suggesting a place of wild animals. Wilderness is both a landscape and an idea about that landscape.
Etymology
Old English wildēornes (land inhabited only by wild animals), from wildēor (wild beast), from wilde (wild) + dēor (animal). The -ness suffix makes it a state or condition — the condition of being given over to wild things.
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