wilderness

From Middle English wildernes, wildernesse (“uninhabited, uncultivated, or wild territory; desolate land; desert; (figuratively) depopulated or devastated place; state of devastation or ruin; human experience and life”) ,^[1] and then either:

• from Middle English wilderne (“deserted or uninhabited place, wilderness; land not yet settled”)  (from Old English wilddeōren (“savage, wild”); see below)^[2] + -nes, -nesse (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting qualities or states);^[3] or
• from Old English *wildēornes, *wilddēornes, probably from wilddēor (“wild animal”)  or more likely from wilddēoren (“savage, wild”) (from wilddēor + -en (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘consisting of; material made of’)) + -nes (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting qualities or states).^[4]

Wilddēor is derived from wilde (“savage, wild”) (ultimately either from Proto-Indo-European *wel-, *welw- (“hair, wool; ear of corn, grass; forest”), or *gʷʰel- (“wild”)) + dēor (“beast, wild animal”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰwes- (“to breathe; breath; soul, spirit; creature”)).

The English word is cognate with Danish vildnis (“wilderness”), German Wildernis, Wildnis (“wilderness”), Middle Dutch wildernisse (“wilderness”) (modern Dutch wildernis (“wilderness”)), Middle Low German wildernisse (“wilderness”) (German Low German Wildernis (“wilderness”)), Saterland Frisian Wüüldernis (“wilderness”), West Frisian wyldernis (“wilderness”).

Sense 3.3 (“situation of disfavour or lack of recognition”) is a reference to Numbers 14:32–33 in the Bible (King James Version; spelling modernized): “But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness.”^[5]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪldənəs/, /-nɪs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪldɚnəs/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: wild‧er‧ness

wilderness (countable and uncountable, plural wildernesses)

1. (uncountable) Uncultivated and unsettled land in its natural state inhabited by wild animals and with vegetation growing wild; (countable) a tract of such land; a waste or wild.

   Synonyms: (chiefly Australia) bushland, wildland, wilds, wastelands; wasteness (obsolete), wastness (obsolete)

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 272:

     For ſtill he traueild through wide waſtfull ground, / That nought but deſert wilderneſſe ſhewed all around.

   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Second Part of Henrie the Fourth, , quarto edition, London: V S for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     O my poore kingdome! ſicke with ciuill blowes: / VVhen that my care could not withhold thy riots, / VVhat wilt thou do when riot is thy care? / O thou wilt be a wilderneſſe againe, / Peopled with woolues, thy old inhabitants.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Job 24:5, column 1:

     Behold, as wilde aſſes in the deſart, goe they foorth to their worke, riſing betimes for a pray: the wildernes yeeldeth food for them; and for their children.

   • 1626, [Samuel] Purchas, “Of the Religious Votaries amongst the Turkes, and of Their Saints, Sects, Miracles, and Hypocriticall Holinesse”, in Purchas His Pilgrimes. , 5th part, London: William Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone, , →OCLC, book, page 315:

     Strange it is, that he reporteth of the miraculous workes of ſome of them, that they may ſeeme (as he ſaith) incarnate Deuils: […] ſome dwell amongſt men, ſome by themſelues apart, and ſome in Wilderneſſe: […]

   • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: , London: Nath Ponder , →OCLC, page 120:

     Thus they went on talking of what they had ſeen by the way; and ſo made that way eaſie, which would otherwiſe, no doubt, have been tedious to them: for now they went through a Wilderneſs.

   • 1785, William Cowper, “Book II. The Time-piece.”, in The Task, a Poem, , London: J Johnson;  , →OCLC, page 45:

     Oh for a lodge in ſome vaſt wilderneſs, / Some boundleſs contiguity of ſhade, / Where rumour of oppreſſion and deceit, / Of unſucceſsful or ſucceſsful war / Might never reach me more.

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter XIV, in Pride and Prejudice: , volume III, London: for T Egerton, , →OCLC, pages 241–242:

     Miss Bennet, there seemed to be a prettyish kind of a little wilderness on one side of your lawn. I should be glad to take a turn in it, if you will favour me with your company.

   • 1831 June–November (date written), Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter , in Tales of My Landlord, Fourth and Last Series. , volume IV (Castle Dangerous), Edinburgh: [Ballantyne and Company] for Robert Cadell; London: Whittaker and Co., published 1 December 1831 (indicated as 1832), →OCLC, page 220:

     Here they ascended, and anon appeared to descend in the same direction, finding only boundless wildernesses, and varied combinations of tangled woodland scenery.

   • 1835, [Washington Irving], chapter X, in A Tour on the Prairies (The Crayon Miscellany; no. 1), Philadelphia, Pa.: [Henry Charles] Carey, [Isaac] Lea, & Blanchard, →OCLC, page 68:

     […] I can conceive nothing more likely to set the youthful blood into a flow, than a wild wood life of the kind, and the range of a magnificent wilderness, abounding with game, and fruitful of adventure.

   • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Part I”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, page 17:

     Down from the bastion'd walls we dropt by night, / And flying reach'd the frontier: then we crost / To a livelier land; and so by town and thorpe, / And tilth, and blowing bosks of wilderness, / We gain'd the mother-city thick with towers, / And in the imperial palace found the king.

2. (by extension)
   1. (countable) A place other than land (for example, the air or sea) that is uncared for, and therefore devoted to disorder or wildness.
      • c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus:  (First Quarto), London: Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, , published 1594, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

        For now I ſtand as one vpon a rocke, / Inuirond with a wildernes of ſea, / VVho markes the waxing tide, grow waue by waue, / Expecting euer when ſome enuious ſurge, / VVill in his briniſh bowels ſwallow him.

      • 1821, Lord Byron, “Cain, a Mystery”, in Sardanapalus, a Tragedy; The Two Foscari, a Tragedy; Cain, a Mystery, London: John Murray, , →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 378:

        [W]hat / Is this blue wilderness of interminable / Air, where ye roll along, as I have seen / The leaves along the limpid streams of Eden?

   2. (countable, horticulture) An ornamental part of a garden or park cultivated with trees and often a maze to evoke a natural wilderness.
      • 1785, William Cowper, “Book I. The Sofa.”, in The Task, a Poem, , London: J Johnson;  , →OCLC, page 19:

        And now with nerves new-brac'd and ſpirits chear'd / We tread the wilderneſs, whoſe well-roll'd walks / With curvature of ſlow and eaſy ſweep, / Deception innocent—give ample ſpace / To narrow bounds.

   3. (uncountable, obsolete) Unrefinedness; wildness.
      • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 71, column 2:

        What ſhould I thinke, / Heauen ſhield my Mother plaid my Father faire: / For ſuch a warped ſlip of wilderneſſe / Nere iſſu'd from his blood.

        What should I think? / Heaven forbid, my mother must have been unfaithful to my father, / For such a warped descendant of wildness / Never issued from his blood.

      • 1674, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. , 2nd edition, London: S Simmons , →OCLC, page 221:

        Theſe paths & Bowers doubt not but our joynt hands / Will keep from Wilderneſs with eaſe, as wide / As we need walk, till younger hands ere long / Aſſiſt us: […]

3. (countable, figuratively)
   1. Chiefly followed by of: a bewildering flock or throng; a large, often jumbled, collection of things.
      • c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice.  (First Quarto), : J Roberts , published 1600, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

        Tuball. One of them ſhewed me a ring that hee had of your daughter for a Monkey. / Shy[lock]. Out vpon her: thou tortur'ſt me Tuball, it was my Turkies, I had it of Leah when I was a Batchellor: I would not haue giuen it for a wilderneſſe of Monkies.

      • c. 1613 (first performance), John Fletcher, “The Tragedie of Bonduca”, in Comedies and Tragedies , London: Humphrey Robinson, , and for Humphrey Moseley , published 1647, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 66, column 2:

        [T]he virgins thou haſt rob'd of all their wiſhes, / blaſted their blowing hopes, turn'd their ſongs, / their mirthful Marriage-ſongs to Funerals, / the Land thou haſt left a wilderneſſe of wretches.

      • 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. , London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 291–294:

        Thir glittering Tents he paſsd, and now is come / Into the bliſsful field, through Groves of Myrrhe, / And flouring Odours, Caſſia, Nard, and Balme; / A Wilderneſs of ſweets; […]

      • 1824 March 26, [Lord Byron], Don Juan. Cantos XV. and XVI., London: for John and H L Hunt, , →OCLC, canto XVI, stanza III, page 62:

        And as she treats all things, and ne'er retreats / From any thing, this Epic will contain / A wilderness of the most rare conceits, / Which you might elsewhere hope to find in vain.

      • 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “Mr. Dombey Goes upon a Journey”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1848, →OCLC, page 199:

        Tortured by these thoughts he carried monotony with him, through the rushing landscape, and hurried headlong, not through a rich and varied country, but a wilderness of blighted plans and gnawing jealousies.

      • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Little Mother”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1857, →OCLC, book the first (Poverty), page 72:

        He had but glanced away at the piles of city roofs and chimneys among which the smoke was rolling heavily, and at the wilderness of masts on the river, and the wilderness of steeples on the shore, indistinctly mixed together in the stormy haze, when she was again as quiet as if she had been plying her needle in his mother's room.

   2. A place or situation that is bewildering and in which one may get lost.
      • 1678, John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That which is to Come: , London: Nath Ponder , →OCLC, page 1:

        As I walk'd through the wilderneſs of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was a Denn; And I laid me down in that place to ſleep: And as I ſlept I dreamed a Dream.

      • 1813, Lord Byron, The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale, London: T Davison, , for John Murray, , →OCLC, page 28:

        If solitude succeed to grief, / Release from pain is slight relief; / The vacant bosom's wilderness / Might thank the pang that made it less.

      • 1846 October 1 – 1848 April 1, Charles Dickens, “The Flight of Florence”, in Dombey and Son, London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1848, →OCLC, page 473:

        Where to go? Still somewhere, anywhere! still going on; but where! She thought of the only other time she had been lost in the wide wilderness of London—though not lost as now—and went that way. To the home of Walter's uncle.

      • 1868, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, “Burdens”, in Little Women: , part first, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1869, →OCLC, pages 59–60:

        The dim, dusty room, with the busts staring down from the tall book-cases, the cosy chairs, the globes, and, best of all, the wilderness of books, in which she could wander where she liked, made the library a region of bliss to her.

   3. Preceded by in the: a situation of disfavour or lack of recognition; (specifically, politics) of a politician, political party, etc.: a situation of being out of office.
      • 2015, Dermot McEvoy, “How Michael Collins Helped Save Winston Churchill’s Career”, in Irish Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Ireland, New York, N.Y.: Skyhorse Publishing, →ISBN:

        After the firm establishment of the Irish Free State, [Winston] Churchill would continue to hold office until the depression. Then, he found himself in the political wilderness. But, unlike [David] Lloyd George, he would not find himself tripping to Berchtesgaden to prostrate himself before Adolf Hitler in admiration. Perhaps he had learned something from Michael Collins—never bend the knee to the tyrant.

• wildernesse (obsolete)

• wilderness on Wikipedia.Wikipedia