feral person
- noun
- /ˈfɛrəl ˈpɜrsən/
:
persona salvaje
- Having grown up alone in the wild, he exhibited many behaviors typical of a feral person.
Examples
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The psychologist explained that a feral person might never fully adapt to normal human society.
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The story of the feral person found living in the woods fascinated researchers and the public alike.
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The documentary featured a feral person raised by wolves.
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Many feral people have difficulty adjusting to society.
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The psychologist explained that a feral person might never fully adapt to normal human society.
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Having grown up alone in the wild, he exhibited many behaviors typical of a feral person.
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The story of the feral person found living in the woods fascinated researchers and the public alike.
Synonyms
4
8.8
A person who lives alone in the wild away from towns
A man who has lived without contact with other people since childhood
A woman who lives away from other people and lacks usual social skills
How Socialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally understandable: a learner who knows 'feral' (wild, reverted to a wild state) and 'person' will likely infer a human who is wild or untamed. However, the specific sense—someone raised isolated from human contact from a very young age and not socialized—is a metaphorical extension from animal usage and not fully predictable from the constituents, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Feral person comes from feral (a word for animals that return to the 'wild') plus person, so it paints the picture of a human behaving like a wild animal. Imagine someone raised alone in the woods who never learned how to live with others. So a feral person means someone who grew up 'without normal human contact' and is not used to living with other people.