"wild" in seven languages
Meaningwild
Spanish
/salˈbaxe/
borrowed · Catalan salvatge (or Old Occitan)
French
/sovaʒ/
inherited
Italian
/selˈvaddʒo/
borrowed · Old Occitan salvatge
For wild plants and animals Italian prefers selvatico, the inherited doublet.
Portuguese
/sewˈvaʒẽj/
borrowed · Old Occitan salvatge
The ending -agem (not inherited -ádego) betrays a Gallo-Romance loan, like viagem.
Romanian
/səlˈbatik/
inherited
Romanian kept -ĀTICUM as -atic.
Catalan
/səlˈbadʒə/
inherited
-ĀTICUM gives Catalan -atge, as in viatge.
English
/waɪld/
native English · Old English wilde
The Latin ancestor
SILVĀTICUM (spoken SALVĀTICUM)‘of the woods’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
Wild meant 'of the forest' (SILVA). French turned the l into u (sauvage); Spanish and Italian took the word from their neighbours, and English borrowed the French one as savage.
English relatives: savage (via French), sylvan, Pennsylvania
Sound laws at work
Learn it
In a sentence
- esLa costa sigue siendo salvaje.
- frLa côte est encore sauvage.
- itLa costa è ancora selvaggia.
- ptO litoral ainda é selvagem.
- roCoasta este încă sălbatică.
- caLa costa encara és salvatge.
- enThe coast is still wild.
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