Wodewoses

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Mythical forest beings often depicted as wild men covered in hair; legendary creatures symbolizing untamed nature and folklore figures from medieval tales; imaginary humanoid figures embodying the spirit of the wilderness and ancient woodland lore
2. Folkloric entities described as hairy wild men inhabiting deep woods; traditional characters representing nature’s primordial forces and medieval storytelling motifs; visionary beings portraying the primal essence of forests and mythical narrative elements
3. Legendary wild men depicted with shaggy hair dwelling in forests; cultural icons signifying the untamed and mysterious aspects of nature within medieval myth; fantastical humanoid representations linked to ancient stories about woodland spirits and savage men

Etymology: Wodewose is a Middle English word, a variant of "wodwose" and "wodehouse" (the older sense of "wode" was "wild" or "mad," from Old English "wod"), and it meant "wild man of the woods." The second element is usually traced to Old English "wasa," "wase," or "wose," a word for a wild or savage man, though its exact ancestry is uncertain. The creature was a fixture of medieval art and pageantry: carved on church misericords, painted on walls, and paraded in street shows, often with a club and a body covered in hair or leaves. The word lasted in English largely as a heraldic and decorative term. Wodewoses were common supporters in coats of arms, and the figure appears in the pageant tradition and in the Tudor-era custom of wild-man masques, which is why the word survives in dictionaries rather than everyday speech. Its sense of a hairy, untamed forest dweller comes out of a much older European image of the savage who lives outside civilization.

Synonyms: wild men, woodwoses