noble savage
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.83 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A stock character embodying the concept of an idealized indigene or outsider who has not been corrupted by civilization and therefore symbolizes humanity's innate goodness.
Example Sentences
- "It seemed hardly possible that by such comparatively small mouthfuls he could keep up the vitality diffused through so broad, baronial, and superb a person. But, doubtless, this noble savage fed strong and drank deep of the abounding element of air; and through his dilated nostrils snuffed in the sublime life of the worlds."
- "The Isángú, or Ingwánba, the craving felt after a short abstinence from animal food, does not spare the white traveller more than it does his dark guides; and, though the moral courage of the former may resist the "gastronomic practice" of breaking fast upon a fat young slave, one does not expect so much from the untutored appetite of the noble savage."
- "It is written that the noble savage must never express surprise in the presence of the white."
- "This is like one of those Red-skin stories where the noble savages carry off a girl and the honest backwoodsman with his incomparable knowledge follows the track and reads the signs of her fate in a footprint here, a broken twig there, a trinket dropped by the way."
- "Here the problem is aggravated by the mutually reinforcing influences of the ‘black legend’ of Spanish greed and cruelty, and the contrasting myth of the American Indian as ‘noble savage’."