savageryn.
/ˈsavᵻdʒ(ə)ri/, U.S. /ˈsævədʒ(ə)ri/ a. Wild vegetation. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > valued plants and weeds > [noun] > weed > collectively
weedOE
weeding1598
savagerya1616
weedery1642
roguery1763
weedage1853
weed growth1923
weed1934
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) v. ii. 47 Her fallow Leas, The Darnell, Hemlock, and ranke Femetary, Doth root vpon; while that the Culter rusts, That should deracinate such Sauagery . View more context for this quotation
b. Savage people or animals collectively. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > harmfulness > savagery > savage person > [noun] > collectively
savagery1822
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > civilization > lack of civilization > [noun] > uncivilized person > collectively
savagery1822
savagedom1837
the world > animals > by nature > [noun] > wild animal > collectively
savagery1867
1822 European Mag. & London Rev. Jan. 77/1 Ashantee and other opulent dwellings of savagery.
1867 J. Ingelow Story of Doom vi. 10 And had made A fire, to scare away the savagery That roamed in that great forest.
1897 R. S. S. Baden-Powell Matabele Campaign xviii. 464 That the white settlers were not entirely overwhelmed in the first mad, blood-thirsting rush of relentless savagery is a matter for marvel.
2. The quality of being fierce or cruel; savage disposition, behaviour, or action. As a count noun: a cruel or savage act.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > harmfulness > savagery > [noun]
rethenesseOE
grimcundleȝcc1175
fellhead1340
ferteec1380
fiercenessc1384
savagenessa1400
grimliness14..
fellnessc1410
bestialitya1413
fierceheadc1440
cruelness?a1475
inhumanity1477
bremeness?1529
fury1534
tigerness1535
bruteness1538
immanity1539
wolvishness?1548
ferity?c1550
brutishness1567
truculency1569
Phalarism1581
ferocity1606
savagerya1616
brutality1633
inhumanness1649
wolfishness1676
boarishness1682
brutism1687
truculence1727
ferociousness1766
bestialism1824
tigerhood1846
Calibanism1859
unhumanness1885
inhumanism1907
Hunnishness1914
the mind > goodness and badness > harmfulness > savagery > savage action > [noun]
savagerya1616
hyenaism1833
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > ill-treatment > cruelty > [noun]
rethenesseOE
crueltyc1230
cruelnessa1400
savagenessa1400
cruelc1440
crudelity1483
savagec1487
savagerya1616
reluctationa1625
fellness1678
heartlessness1891
the world > action or operation > behaviour > bad behaviour > ill-treatment > cruelty > [noun] > act or instance of
savagerya1616
atrocity1793
a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iv. iii. 48 This is the bloodiest shame, The wildest Sauagery, the vildest stroke That euer wall-ey'd wrath..Presented to the teares of soft remorse. View more context for this quotation
1677 W. Smith Two Serm. preached at Norwich 28 Every man had invaded every man with the most horrid acts of cruelty and savagery.
1683 W. Smith Serm. Norwich 6 An Act..that should not only have justified the Savageries of the most brutish Barbarians, but even made Hell it self comparatively innocent.
1796 S. T. Coleridge Relig. Musings in Poems Var. Subj. 152 In savagery of holy zeal.
1841 T. Carlyle On Heroes iv. 227 They err greatly who imagine that this man's courage was ferocity, mere coarse disobedient obstinacy and savagery, as many do.
1876 Ld. Tennyson Harold ii. ii. 53 Hast thou never heard His savagery at Alençon.
1883 R. F. Burton & V. F. Cameron To Gold Coast I. iii. 75 We shall seldom see these savageries on the eastern coast of the island.
1905 Japan Weekly Mail 11 Mar. 259/1 No language can adequately condemn the perpetration of such a savagery.
1950 A. Huxley Themes & Variations 46 Totalitarian dictators find it right and proper to behave with systematic savagery.
1964 O. Ruhen Lively Ghosts 141 Sometimes, as in the case of the killer or the cachalot or others of the toothed whales, it was a creature capable of great savagery.
1998 K. Lette Altar Ego i. 6 She tossed a fistful of crisps into her maw with alarming savagery.
3. The condition of being primitive and uncivilized; a primitive state of human society.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > customs, values, and civilization > civilization > lack of civilization > [noun]
barbarousness1549
Barbary1564
barbarity1570
barbarism1584
incivility1584
uncivility1598
wildness1639
ferity1646
the (also a) state of nature1650
savagism1665
savagery1782
semi-barbarism1817
barbarization1822
incivilization1823
semibarbarianism1828
savagedom1844
barbarianism1854
uncivilizedness1879
uncivilization1880
bruteness1883
semi-savagedom1887
1782 T. Campbell Aphorisms Polit. Oeconomy in Let. Duke of Portland 42 Be the state called savagery or barbarism,..each member of it exercises the rudiment of every trade.
1795 W. Drennan Let. Excellency Earl Fitzwilliam 5 That particular knowledge..may prevent them from roaming at large in the savagery of nature.
a1834 S. T. Coleridge Lit. Remains (1836) II. 327 The progress from savagery to civilization is evidently first from the hunting to a pastoral state.
1864 R. F. Burton Mission to Gelele I. 19 At certain hours the bugle-call from Santa Cecilia intimates that all about me is not savagery.
1904 R. Rodd Sir W. Raleigh ii. 23 Ireland..remained abandoned to the savagery of the primeval Celt.
1979 J. Varley Titan ix. 89 You've read the stories of generation ships where something went wrong and everybody slipped back to savagery?
2007 D. S. Wilson Evol. for Everyone ii. 15 One of the great questions of Darwin's day was why some people had become ‘civilized’ while others remained in the state of ‘savagery’.
4. Wildness of country, landscape, or scenery.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > land > landscape > [noun] > scenery > quality of
naturalness1841
savagery1843
1843 Colburn's United Service Mag. July 378 ‘Deception Range’, together with the cloud-capped pinnacles and stupendous gorges.., lay before us in all their native savagery—bold, rugged, frightful.
1872 B. Harte Mrs. Skaggs's Husbands 1 The cabin possessed but little advantage over the simple savagery of surrounding nature.
1884 G. A. Sala Journey due South (1887) i. vii. 97 The appearance of the rock-bound coast is one of unrelieved savagery.
1909 P. E. Henderson Brit. Officer in Balkans xxi. 240 These precipitous hillsides, gaunt and naked..lent a certain savagery to the landscape.
1968 J. McPhee Pine Barrens 41 It is a region aboriginal in savagery, grand in the aspects of untrammelled Nature.
2006 Sc. Daily Mail (Nexis) 6 Jan. 59 The most extraordinary place in Scotland, frankly awesome in its savagery.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2012; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
n.a1616