Etymograph

English

wild

Wild comes from Old English wilde ‘wild, savage’, from Proto-Germanic *wilþijaz ‘wild’, whose deeper origin is disputed.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wilþijaz1‘wild’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wilþī1‘wild’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150wilde1‘wild, savage’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500weilde1
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1527–1542wild1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English wild
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1527–1542, Thomas Wyatt, Who so list to hounte: “noli me tangere for Ceſars I ame and wylde…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*wilþijazWiktionary, English wild‘wild’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*wilþīWiktionary, English wild‘wild’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150wildeWiktionary, English wild‘wild, savage’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500weildeWiktionary, English wild
  5. Englishearliest quotation c. 1527–1542wildWiktionary, English wild. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1527–1542, Thomas Wyatt, Who so list to hounte: “noli me tangere for Ceſars I ame and wylde…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with wild, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- ‘hair’

  • value ← valew ← valēre ← *walēō
  • equivalent ← aequivalentem ← aequivaleō ← valeō ← *walēō
  • valid ← valide ← validus ← valeō ← *walēō
  • wool ← wolle ← wull ← *wullu ← *wullō
  • velvet ← veluet ← *villutittus ← villus ← vellus
  • valuation ← valoir ← valeō ← *walēō ← *h₂wl̥h₁éh₁yeti
  • vale ← valeō ← *walēō ← *h₂wl̥h₁éh₁yeti
  • valiant ← vailaunt ← vaillaunt ← valēre
  • avail ← availen ← a ← valoir ← valeō
  • fluff ← vluwe
  • flannel ← flaunneol ← flaine ← *wlānos ← *h₂wĺ̥h₁neh₂
  • valour ← valor ← valeō ← *walēō ← *h₂wl̥h₁éh₁yeti

51 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

adj Especially, being of the wild type: being of an unbroken ancestral line of undomesticated animals, as opposed to being feral, being an undomesticated animal whose ancestors were domesticated.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “wild”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *wilþijaz / wild