savagery

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   extreme cruelty or violent brutality

   Witnesses were shocked by the savagery of the attack.

2. 2
   noun

   a particular cruel or brutal act

   The memoir records the savageries committed during the conflict.

3. 3
   noun

   the fierce, untamed quality of an animal, force, or place

   The sailors respected the sudden savagery of the winter sea.

Formed from savage + -ery. Savage came through Middle English and Old French sauvage from Late Latin salvaticus, a variant of Latin silvaticus, "of the woods, wild," from silva, "woodland." Savagery developed from wildness to denote ferocious violence or extreme cruelty.

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