Etymology: Common Germanic: Old English wilde = Old Frisian wilde , Middle Dutch wilde , wilt (Low German, Dutch wild ), Old High German wildi (Middle High German wilde , wild , German wild ), Old Norse villr bewildered, astray, whence will adv. and adj. (Norwegian vill wild, Swedish vill confused, giddy, Swedish, Danish vild wild), Gothic wilþeis < Old Germanic *wilþijaz . The noun, Old English *wild , *wildor (compare wildorlic adjective), plural wildru (later wildéor , wildedéor wild deer n.), Old High German wild, plural wildir wild beast, is apparently a derivative (*wilþaz-, -iz-) with s-stem from the same root (compare lamb). The problem of the ulterior relations of this word is complicated by uncertainty as to its primary meaning. The possible analogy of sense-development in Latin silvestris , silvāticus (whence French sauvage wild, etc.), < silva wood, has suggested connection with Old Germanic *walþus forest (Old English weald , wald wold n.). But it is more probable that Old Germanic *wilþijaz represents a pre-Germanic *ghweltijos , the root of which is found in Welsh gwyllt , Irish geilt wild, and may have a parallel form in ghwr- , the base of Latin ferus , Greek θήρ , Lithuanian zvèrìs , Old Church Slavonic zvěrŭ wild beast (for a similar phonological development of ghw- compare warm adj.).