Wilders

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. Wilders is a surname, most often associated with Geert Wilders, the Dutch politician who leads the Party for Freedom
2. A Dutch family name, best known today through Geert Wilders, the nationalist politician who founded the Party for Freedom
3. Used as a surname, this name is most widely recognized as belonging to Geert Wilders, a prominent Dutch anti-immigration politician

Etymology: "Wilders" is the third-person singular present form of "wilder," a verb meaning to lead someone astray or to bewilder them, so the word's history is really the history of "wilder." That verb is formed from "wild," probably suggested by "wilderness," and its form was likely shaped by "wander," which has the same kind of verb ending. The result is a word that seems to have been pulled in two directions at once: its sense comes from the idea of wild, untamed land, while its spelling and ending follow the pattern of a familiar everyday verb.