Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Wilderness

Wilderness , noun

[Old English wildernesse, wilderne,probably from Anglo-Saxon wildor a wild beast; compare Dutch wildernis wilderness. See Wilder, transitive verb]

1.
A tract of land, or a region, uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings, whether a forest or a wide, barren plain; a wild; a waste; a desert; a pathless waste of any kind.
The wat'ry wilderness yields no supply. — Waller
2.
A disorderly or neglected place. — Cowper
3.
Quality or state of being wild; wildness. [Obsolete]
These paths and bowers doubt not but our joint hands. Will keep from wilderness with ease. — Milton