Savaged

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To have been violently harmed or attacked in a brutal manner
2. Having suffered a severe and intense physical attack marked by brutality
3. Experiencing a harsh and cruel assault causing significant damage or injury

Etymology: The verb "savaged" is simply the past form of "savage," so its history is the history of that verb's root. Its ancestor is Latin "silva," meaning "forest; grove." From it came the adjective "silvāticus," "of the woods," which Late Latin altered to "salvāticus," and that passed into Old French as "sauvage" (and the variant "salvage") meaning "wild, untamed." English borrowed it in Middle English as "savage," describing creatures and lands that had not been tamed by people. The sense of "savage" as a description of human brutality developed later, as English speakers applied the idea of untamed wildness to people, which gave the word its association with cruelty and fierce, uncontrolled violence. That shift from "belonging to the forest" to "ferociously brutal" is what the past form carries when it describes someone or something that has been mauled or attacked with extreme ferocity.

Synonyms: attacked, mauled, assaulted, torn, ravaged

Antonyms: protected, defended, safeguarded, preserved, healed