wilderness
(ˈwɪldənɪs)
Forms: 3–6 wyldernesse, 3–7 wildernesse, 4–6 wil-, wyl-, -der-, -dir-, -dre-, (-dur-), -dyr-, -nes, -ness(e, (-nys), (4 Sc. vildirnes, 5 wyyldernesse), 4– wilderness.
[OE. *wild(d)éornes (Sweet's A.-S. Dict.) = MLG., MDu. wildernisse (Du. wildernis, G. wildernis); f. wilder, wil(d)déor (see wild a., wild deer) or, perh. more probably, wilddéoren wildern a. + -nes -ness (for the concrete sense cf. héahnes summit, sméþnes ‘planities’).
The other types of derivatives of wild meaning ‘wilderness’ in the Teutonic languages are represented by (1) MHG., G. wilde fem. (cf. wild n.), (2) MLG., MHG. wilt(e)nisse, G. wildnis (cf. wildness 2), (3) G. (now dial.) wilden(e, wildin, (4) ME. wildern.]
1. a. (without article) Wild or uncultivated land.
Distinguished from desert, in that the latter denotes an uninhabitable and uncultivable region, and implies entire lack of vegetation.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 161 Weste is cleped þat londe, þat is longe tilðe atleien, and wildernesse, ȝef þare manie rotes onne wacseð. c 1205 Lay. 30335 He scal habben paþes weste and wildernesse inoȝe. a 1300 Cursor M. 2617 In wildernes al bi a well. 13.. Sir Beues (A.) 3867 Þe geaunt..In a castel hire hadde to ward, In wildernesse al be selue. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xviii. 52 Als he trewyt na man was In abay, na in vildirnes, Þat mocht do mare þane he had done. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxi. 98 A grete party of þis cuntree es waste and wilderness and noȝt inhabitid. c 1450 J. Capgrave Life St. Aug. xiv. 20 Holy heremites whech dwelled in wildyrnesse. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. vii. 2 He traueild through wide wastfull ground, That nought but desert wildernesse shew'd all around. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. ii. (S.T.S.) I. 164 Twyse he compelled him to take his refuge in wod and wildirnes. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage v. v. 404 The Countrey of Gouren, where we found but few villages, and almost all wildernesse. 1835 W. Irving Tour Prairies 143 Passing through tracts of wilderness which they have never before traversed. 1847 Tennyson Princess i. 110 By tilth and grange,..and blowing bosks of wilderness. |
b. (with article or other defining word) A wild or uncultivated region or tract of land, uninhabited, or inhabited only by wild animals; ‘a tract of solitude and savageness’ (J.).
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 160 He..feste þer as he was one iðe wildernesse [v.r. wilderne]. Ibid. 196 Iðe wildernesse [v.r. wildene] heo aspieden us to slean. a 1300 Cursor M. 11110 (Cott.) He..liued wit rotes and wit gress, Wit honi o þe wildernes. 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 172 Hyt was onys a munke, and had a celle In a wyldernes for to dwelle. 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 701 In þe wyldrenesse of Wyrale. c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 798/7 Hec solitudo, a wyldernys. 1535 Coverdale Job xxxix. 6 Vnto whom I haue geuen the wyldernes to be their house, & the vntilled londe to be their dwellinge place. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iv. v. 137 O my poore Kingdome..thou wilt be a Wildernesse againe, Peopled with Wolues (thy old Inhabitants). 1645 Milton Tetrach. 10 By forcing that upon us as the remedy of solitude, which wraps us in a misery worse then any wildernes. 1784 Cowper Task ii. 1 Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness. 1831 Scott Cast. Dang. xv, Finding only boundless wildernesses, and varied combinations of tangled woodland scenery. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 368 Temple had made a retreat for himself at a place called Moor Park... The country round his dwelling was almost a wilderness. |
c. A piece of ground in a large garden or park, planted with trees, and laid out in an ornamental or fantastic style, often in the form of a maze or labyrinth.
| a 1644 Quarles Sol. Recant. ch. ii. 6, I cut me Aquiducts, whose current flees And waters all my wildernesse of trees. 1668 Dryden Even. Love v, Disperse your selves, some into the Wilderness, some into the Allies, and some into the Parterre. 1770 H. Chamberlain Hist. & Surv. London 641/2 In one part of it [sc. the park] is a pretty wilderness laid out in walks, and planted with a variety of ever-green trees. 1784 Cowper Task i. 351. 1839 E. Jesse Summer's Day Hampton Crt. 77 On the opposite side of the palace there is a large space of ground called the Wilderness, planted and laid out by William III. 1885 M. E. Braddon Wyllard's Weird i, Manifold as were the cares of the hot-houses and ferneries and wildernesses. |
2. transf. or gen. A waste or desolate region of any kind, e.g. of open sea, of air.
| 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. iii. i. 94, I stand as one vpon a Rocke, Inuiron'd with a wildernesse of Sea. 1629 Drayner Conf. (1647) B 2, The difference between a Wildernesse of water and a goodly green Meadow. 1665 Waller Instr. Painter 78 But who can always on the Billows ly? The watry Wilderness yields no supply. 1821 Byron Cain ii. i, This blue wilderness of interminable Air. 1865 Parkman Huguenots iii. (1875) 30 They..saw the long, low line where the wilderness of waves met the wilderness of woods. |
3. fig. a. Something figured as a region of a wild or desolate character, or in which one wanders or loses one's way; in religious use applied to the present world or life as contrasted with heaven or the future life (cf. 6 b).
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter cxlvii. 4 He forsakis vs noght in þis wildirenes. c 1390 Chaucer Truth 17 Here is non home, here nys but wyldernesse. c 1480 Henryson Trial of Fox 317 The Meir is Men of gude conditioun, As Pilgrymes walkand in this wildernes. 1640 Brome Antipodes i. iii, But sure his mind Is in a wildernesse: For there he sayes Are Geese that have two heads a peece. 1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 52 Thus discursive Argumentation and Rational probabilities mislead men in the Wilderness of Enquiry. 1678 Bunyan Pilgr. i. 1 As I walk'd through the wilderness of this world. a 1708 T. Ward Eng. Ref. ii. (1710) 46 All they can do's to bid you pore On Bibles till your Eyes are sore, And in that Wilderness of Letter Hunt for your Faiths. 1813 Byron Giaour 939 The vacant bosom's wilderness. 1868 L. M. Alcott Little Women iv, The cosy chairs, the globes, and best of all, the wilderness of books, in which she could wander where she liked. |
b. Rhetorically applied to a place (e.g. a building or town) which one finds ‘desolate’, or in which one is lonely or ‘lost’.
| 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes vi, Passing this wilderness of an hotel with stores about its base. 1848 ― Dombey xxiii, So Florence lived in her wilderness of a home. 1891 Kipling Light that Failed 118 Meantime Maisie was alone in London... And the packed wilderness was very full of danger. |
c. in the wilderness (in allusion to Numbers xiv. 33), (a) of a politician, political party, etc.: out of office; (b) gen., unrecognized, out of favour.
| 1930 Economist 2 Aug. 220/1 For Charles X represented a Restoration of the Ancien Régime..which had ‘learnt nothing and forgotten nothing’ during a quarter of a century in the wilderness. 1958 Spectator 6 June 719/3 Parties should liquidate their failures and frustrations in the wilderness, not in power. 1966 Listener 5 May 661/2 Richard Baker asked Bernard Keeffe why Mahler, so long in the wilderness as far as England was concerned, is now a box-office success. 1969 Ibid. 3 July 12/3 Carmichael has now accepted a junior post in the Panther hierarchy and Rap Brown and Jim Foreman have been driven into the wilderness. 1976 Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 17 Nov. 22/3 If he fails to gain the title he lost to Cain on a cut eye decision, it could mean months in the wilderness and set him back even further. 1984 Times 1 Aug. 17/2 After months in the wilderness, which has seen the price slip from a high of 95½p to a low of 65½p shares of Marley..is [sic] back in favour with the institutions. |
4. A mingled, confused, or vast assemblage or collection of persons or things. (Usually coloured by other senses; in reference to a growth of plants, nearly coinciding with 1 b; in reference to buildings, etc., often approaching 3 b.)
| 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. iii. i. 54 Dost thou not perceiue That Rome is but a wildernes of Tigers? 1596 ― Merch. V. iii. i. 128, I would not haue giuen it for a wildernesse of Monkies. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage vii. xii. 598 It was called Madera, of the wildernesses of Trees there growing. a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Bonduca v. i, The Land thou hast left a wilderness of wretches. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 294 Through Groves of Myrrhe, And flouring Odours, Cassia, Nard, and Balme; A Wilderness of sweets. 1678 E. Howard Man of Newmarket i. i. 1 This Metropolitan Wilderness of Houses, call'd London. 1775 Sheridan Duenna i. ii, A wilderness of faults and follies. 1824 Byron Juan xvi. iii, This epic will contain A wilderness of the most rare conceits. 1857 Dickens Dorrit i. ix, The wilderness of masts on the river, and the wilderness of steeples on the shore. |
† 5. a. Wildness, uncultivated condition. Obs.
| c 1449 Pecock Repr. iii. xiv. 370 The tenementis..which the clergie..holden..is better..kept fro falling into nouȝt and into wildirnes, than if tho same tenementis..weren in the hondis of grete lordis. 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 245 These paths and Bowers doubt not but our joynt hands Will keep from Wilderness with ease. |
b. fig. Wildness of character, licentiousness. Obs. nonce-use.
| 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. i. 142 For such a warped slip of wildernesse Nere issu'd from his blood. |
6. attrib. a. lit. (in quot. 1670 in sense 1 c).
| a 1586 Sidney Arcadia i. xvii. (1912) 112 Being one of that little wildernesse-company. 1670 L. Meager English Gardener Title-p., The ordering of the Garden of Pleasure, with variety of Knots, and Wilderness-work. 1801 Farmer's Mag. Aug. 297, 14 acres of wilderness land converted into grass. c 1875 E. Thring in Skrine Mem. (1889) 218 The poor beggars had tightish work with all that wilderness life before them. |
b. fig.; esp. in former religious use, belonging to the present world or life (cf. 3).
| 1651 Baxter Saints' Rest ii. ix. §1 (ed. 2) 290 If they had not felt their Wildernes-necessities, God should not have exercised his Wildernes-providences and mercies. 1675 T. Brooks Gold. Key Wks. 1867 V. 473 A wilderness-condition is..a condition of straits, wants, deep distresses, and most deadly dangers. 1679 C. Nesse Antichrist 208 Tainted both with Egypts idolatry, and wilderness-sins. 1719 J. T. Phillips tr. Thirty-four Confer. 79 The Progress thro' this Wilderness-World, towards a better..Life. 1898 Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 16 Her soul On eddies of wild water cast, In wilderness division. |