savage

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
savage/ˈsavɪʤ/

▶adjective

• 1 fierce, violent, and uncontrolled.

  ■ cruel and vicious.

• 2 primitive; uncivilized.

• 3 (of a place) wild; uncultivated.

▶noun

• 1 a member of a people regarded as primitive and uncivilized.

• 2 a brutal or vicious person.

• 3 Heraldry a representation of a bearded and semi-naked man with a wreath of leaves.

▶verb

• 1 (especially of a dog) attack ferociously.

• 2 criticize brutally.

– derivatives
savagely adverb,
savageness noun,
savagery noun.

– origin ME: from OFr. sauvage ‘wild’, from L. silvaticus ‘of the woods’, from silva ‘a wood’.