Wodeman

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for a forester or woodsman who works in the forest ; a mythical savage figure who lives wild among the trees
2. A medieval name for a man who tends or hunts in the woods ; a legendary hairy creature that roams the forest in a state of nature
3. Old English word for someone who lives or labors among the trees ; a folkloric wild man dwelling unclothed and untamed in the wilderness

Etymology: Wodeman comes from Old English "wudu" (wood, forest) and "mann" (man), so its literal sense is "man of the wood." Its descendant "wodewose" (or "woodwose") was the name for the medieval European wild man, a hairy, unclothed figure who lived in forests far from civilization. The Old English form was used for someone who lived or worked among the trees, a forester or woodsman, before the wild-man sense took over. The "wood" in the word still carries the Old English spelling "wud," which meant the forest, not the timber. Medieval artists made the wodewose a common figure, shown carrying a club and covered in hair or leaves. He appeared on heraldry, church carvings, and in manuscripts, and English people of the period used the name for any untamed figure of the wilderness. The English word "wild" and the German "Wald" (forest) share a root with "wood," which shows how closely the idea of the forest and the idea of the wild were tied together for early Germanic speakers.