wild man
(Also formerly with hyphen, or as one word.)
[Cf. Du. wilde mann cannibal, G. wildemann, wildmann, wilder mann, ON. villumaðr.]
1. A man who is wild, in various senses of the adj. a. A man of savage, fierce, uncultured, or unruly nature or character (cf. wild a. 6, 7).
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. 47/17 Wylde Men ne louede he nouȝt, þat rechelese weren of þouȝte. 13.. R. Glouc. Chron. (Rolls) App. H. 136 A wuilde men [read man] fol bolde Þe king sende in to þe court to þe heiȝe men of þe londe. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints x. (Mathou) 402 Þare-for be ȝe of stedfast wil, Þocht wyld men wil ȝov do Il. 1513 St. Papers Hen. VIII No. 4101. lf. 5 (P.R.O.) A Seler and a tester of Redsay and therein a wilde man Ryding on a horse. 1630 [see wild a. 12]. a 1639 Whateley Prototypes i. xvi. (1640) 161 A wild man lives as he lists himselfe. |
b. (wild a. 5.) A man of an uncivilized race or tribe; a savage, or one reverted to a savage state.
| 13.. Cursor M. 3081 (Gött.) [Ishmael] wonid þar as a wild man, In þat desert þat hight pharan. 1530 in Ancestor (1904) Oct. 181 Wolton beryth to his crest a woodwous a wylld man in his kynde vert. 1568 Hacket tr. Thevet's Newfound World xxiv. 31 b, We were well received of the Indians or wilde men of the Countrey. 1575 in Brydges Brit. Bibliogr. (1810) I. 541 To make waye in the streetes, there are certayne men apparelled lyke devells, and wylde men, with skybbs and certayne beadells. 1611 W. Adams Let. in Rundall Mem. Japon (Hakl. Soc.) 37 Eight of our men..ranne from vs with the pinnesse, and (as we suppose) were eaten of the wild men. 1767 Ann. Reg., Chron. 47/1 Peter the wild man, who was taken in the Hartz Forest in Hanover. 1825 J. Neal Bro. Jonathan II. 2 The wild man of North America is exceedingly unlike the wild man of every other country. |
c. An extremist in a political party, a profession, etc. Usu. in pl.
| 1905 D. G. Phillips Plum Tree 266 And I wished for a ‘wild man’ as the candidate for governor. 1910 Belloc Pongo & Bull xix. 287 The Wild Men on the Opposition side might cheer. 1923 Weekly Dispatch 13 May 2 The wild men pin their faith to the Capital Levy as a vote-catcher. 1923 Daily Mail 23 July 14 All the ‘wild men’ of European music, such as Schönberg, Bartok, Prokoviev, Stravinsky, Alois Haba.., Milhaud, and Poulenc. |
2. (wild a. 1.) A name for the orang-outang: also wild man of the woods (see wood n.).
| [1769 E. Bancroft Guiana 131 These animals [sc. Orang-Outang], in all the different languages of the natives, are called by names signifying a Wild Man.] 1791 Smellie tr. Buffon's Nat. Hist. VIII. 97 As there is a greater similarity between this animal and man than between those creatures which resemble him most, as the Barbary ape [etc.], the Indians are to be excused for associating him with the human species, under the denomination of orang-outang, or wild man. 1881 J. Hatton New Ceylon iii. 72 The Bornean ‘wild man’ is quite harmless. |