entry
wild
/waɪld/untamed, uncontrolled, or intensely exciting
From Proto-Germanic, with a proposed Proto-Indo-European connection wild (untamed).
from PIE root *welt- "woodlands; wild" (see wold ). Boutkan gives it no IE etymology and finds the only cognate to be...
from Proto-Germanic *wildia- , a word of uncertain origin, perhaps (Watkins)
from Proto-Germanic *wildia- , a word of uncertain origin, perhaps (Watkins)
Word Ancestry
from PIE root *welt- "woodlands; wild" (see wold ). Boutkan gives it no IE etymology and finds the only cognate to be...
from Proto-Germanic *wildia- , a word of uncertain origin, perhaps (Watkins)
from Proto-Germanic *wildia- , a word of uncertain origin, perhaps (Watkins)
Picture an Anglo-Saxon looking at a plant growing beyond the farm fence: it was *wilde*, not cultivated, not safely folded into human life. The word comes through Proto-Germanic *wildia-, though its ultimate ancestry is disputed: one proposal connects it with PIE *welt- “woodlands; wild,” while another analysis finds no secure Indo-European family beyond a possible Welsh cousin, *gwyllt*. By the late Old English period, a wild person could be self-willed; by the 1590s, someone could be wild with emotion, and by the mid-thirteenth century the word had acquired its rather less innocent sense of sexual looseness. American English then gave it fresh voltage: “wild” could mean thrilling or excellent by 1955, while “Wild West” had appeared by 1826. So when someone says “That was wild,” they are carrying an old boundary marker in their pocket—the line between the cultivated field and everything unpredictable beyond it.
The Story
Picture an Anglo-Saxon looking at a plant growing beyond the farm fence: it was *wilde*, not cultivated, not safely folded into human life. The word comes through Proto-Germanic *wildia-, though its ultimate ancestry is disputed: one proposal connects it with PIE *welt- “woodlands; wild,” while another analysis finds no secure Indo-European family beyond a possible Welsh cousin, *gwyllt*. By the late Old English period, a wild person could be self-willed; by the 1590s, someone could be wild with emotion, and by the mid-thirteenth century the word had acquired its rather less innocent sense of sexual looseness. American English then gave it fresh voltage: “wild” could mean thrilling or excellent by 1955, while “Wild West” had appeared by 1826. So when someone says “That was wild,” they are carrying an old boundary marker in their pocket—the line between the cultivated field and everything unpredictable beyond it.
Modern Usage
crazy, audacious, fun, cool, or awesome
Kin & Kindred
From 'wild'·untamed, uncultivated, outside ordinary control
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Urban Dictionary