land not yet settled”) [and other forms] (from Old English wilddeōren (“savage, wild”); see below) + -nes, -nesse (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting
now covered with rime. 1846, Walter Savage Landor, “[Miscellaneous.] [Poem] CCXX.”, in The Works of Walter Savage Landor. […], volume II, London: Edward
cramp’d no longer shall have scope and breathing-space; / I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race. / Iron-jointed, supple-sinew’d, they