sauvage

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French sauvage, salvage, from Vulgar Latin salvāticus, from Latin silvāticus, from silva (“forest”).

Pronunciation

• (France) IPA^(key): /so.vaʒ/

  • (file)

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /sɔ.vaʒ/

  • (file)

Adjective

sauvage (plural sauvages)

1. wild, untamed, not domesticated
2. coarse, unrefined
3. uncontained, anarchic

   la publicité sauvage

   unregulated/unrestrained/excessive advertising

4. (of a person) living in an eccentric, isolated way, not interested in social contact or appealing to others

Derived terms

• ail sauvage
• chat sauvage
• cornouiller sauvage
• enfant sauvage
• grève sauvage
• séné sauvage

 

Adjective

sauvage (feminine sauvagesse, masculine plural sauvages, feminine plural sauvagesses)

1. (especially Canada, obsolete, offensive) (Louisiana, offensive) Amerindian

Noun

sauvage m (plural sauvages, feminine sauvagesse)

1. (especially Canada, obsolete, offensive, Louisiana) Amerindian
2. (Louisiana) an Amerindian language

Further reading

• “sauvage”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Noun

sauvage

1. Alternative form of savage

Norman

Etymology

From Old French sauvage, salvage, from Vulgar Latin salvāticus, from Latin silvāticus, from silva (“forest”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (Jersey)

  (file)

Adjective

sauvage m or f

1. (Jersey) wild; untamed

Old French

Alternative forms

• salvage

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin salvāticus, from Latin silvāticus. Compare Old Occitan sauvatge, salvatge.

Adjective

sauvage m (oblique and nominative feminine singular sauvage)

1. wild; untamed

Declension

Declension of sauvage

Number	Case	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Singular	Subject	sauvages	sauvage	sauvage
	Oblique	sauvage	sauvage	sauvage
Plural	Subject	sauvage	sauvages	sauvage
	Oblique	sauvages	sauvages	sauvage

Descendants

• French: sauvage
• Norman: sauvage (Jersey)
• → Middle English: savage, salvage, saveage, sauvage, salvage
  • English: savage
  • Scots: savage