Talk:savage

savage-untamed and wild; related terms savages

Use of this word in Ireland.

The word 'savage' is used heavily in the Republic of Ireland in an identical manner to the way 'awesome' is used in the United States. It can be used as an adjective, eg; 'He is a savage football player' as a noun, eg; 'She is (a) savage' (i.e. 'she is attractive') and also on it's own as an exclamation of praise or wonder, eg; 'Savage!'. Note when used as an exclamation there is often heavy and prolonged stress on the first two syllables. It is most notable in Dublin altough it can be heard throughout the country.

Would appreciate if someone stuck in a tab for this on the entry for the word. Thanks jamesy — This comment was unsigned.

I haven't yet found evidence suitable for attestation of this sense. The first 100 Irish newspaper articles I looked at did not reflect it. There did seem to be much use of the word in political discussion. Budget cuts seem always to be "savage".

Is there a Gaelic word that sounds like savage or some other linguistic phenomenon which might account for some difference with other parts of the English-speaking world in usage of "savage"? DCDuring TALK 17:44, 14 December 2008 (UTC)

AAVE usage

It's often used in AAVE to mean outrageous or cutting (of a remark), or someone who acts outrageously or has a lot of chutzpah. I can't actually find a literature citation for this but if someone does, please post it under here so the sense can be added to the entry. — This unsigned comment was added by 67.80.169.60 (talk).

RFV discussion: June–September 2023

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savage

Rfv-sense of the adjective: "(heraldry) Nude; naked, bare, indecent, immodest." I can't find evidence of this and I suspect the addition of this definition may have been a misunderstanding of various blazons like this:

• 1908, James Balfour Paul, The Scots Peerage, page 80:

  The Arms are: Three mullets on a chevron; supporters, a male savage dexter, a female savage sinister.

which are, however, using the noun AFAICT. (And I think it's using a general sense of the noun, too, not even a {{lb|en|heraldry}}-specific noun sense, because it's not just in heraldry that savages are dressed like this, compare old pulp fiction covers.) - -sche (discuss) 17:23, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

Your idea makes sense to me. If this is your source document, it may help to note that the phrase naked savages occurs just a few lines away from what you quoted. This suggests the word savage doesnt by itself mean "naked" even in heraldry, though strictly speaking we can't rule out it having two different meanings. I think in older literature this term may have had a racial or religious meaning, meaning anyone who was not white or anyone who was pagan, and I wonder if these heraldic formulas are preserving that sense. I wish there were pictures close at hand. —Soap— 23:49, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

On Wikipedia there is a link from w:Coat of arms of Denmark to w:Wild man which is labeled savage. It suggests there may be a heraldic sense after all, though it's a noun, as you say, not an adjective. Still it looks like I was wrong up above about thinking that it was just a cover-all term for nonwhites and pagan peoples. —Soap— 23:54, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

Just a note: the last three words of the definition, "bare, indecent, immodest", were added by Mechanical Keyboarder, who made a whole series of low-quality edits to savage. If this sense is cited, at least the last two words should probably be removed. Andrew Sheedy (talk) 18:36, 18 July 2023 (UTC)

Failed the adjective. If anyone wants to add a noun sense (~"a wild person, a stereotypical representation, as also seen on pulp fiction covers, of an uncivilized person"?), that can be discussed separately. - -sche (discuss) 17:32, 8 September 2023 (UTC)