as in barbarian
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Recent Examples of noble savage
The curtain was ornately embroidered with images of bears, onion domes, and noble savages untainted by logic.
—
Jennifer Wilson, The New Yorker, 24 July 2023
Native Americans have long been depicted in Hollywood films and television projects as either bloodthirsty barbarians or noble savages.
—Marlow Stern, Rolling Stone, 9 June 2023
This palpable connection yields highly intimate moments, while jettisoning the cliché of the noble savage by underscoring the acute awareness this community has of its political context, environmental issues and new ways of confronting these realities provided by technology and mass media.
—Emiliano Granada, Variety, 29 May 2023
To romanticize the lost past is to risk another form of exoticization, casting Indigenous peoples as beatifically wise ancients — the archetype of the noble savage — and thus depriving them of dimension and a stake in modernity.
—New York Times, 17 Feb. 2022
Rather the novel presents Tarzan as Rousseau’s unspoiled child of nature, a literally noble savage free from the vices and corruption associated with advanced industrial society.
—Washington Post, 19 Aug. 2020
Whereas the book’s white characters are nuanced, Indian characters are reduced to dangerous adversaries or noble savages.
—Elena Nicolaou, refinery29.com, 24 Aug. 2019
That’s the only yeti to be found in the script, except obliquely, perhaps, in its endorsement of Rousseau’s concept of the noble savage.
—Margaret Gray, latimes.com, 7 June 2019
Jennifer Wilson, The New Yorker, 24 July 2023
Native Americans have long been depicted in Hollywood films and television projects as either bloodthirsty barbarians or noble savages.
—Marlow Stern, Rolling Stone, 9 June 2023
This palpable connection yields highly intimate moments, while jettisoning the cliché of the noble savage by underscoring the acute awareness this community has of its political context, environmental issues and new ways of confronting these realities provided by technology and mass media.
—Emiliano Granada, Variety, 29 May 2023
To romanticize the lost past is to risk another form of exoticization, casting Indigenous peoples as beatifically wise ancients — the archetype of the noble savage — and thus depriving them of dimension and a stake in modernity.
—New York Times, 17 Feb. 2022
Rather the novel presents Tarzan as Rousseau’s unspoiled child of nature, a literally noble savage free from the vices and corruption associated with advanced industrial society.
—Washington Post, 19 Aug. 2020
Whereas the book’s white characters are nuanced, Indian characters are reduced to dangerous adversaries or noble savages.
—Elena Nicolaou, refinery29.com, 24 Aug. 2019
That’s the only yeti to be found in the script, except obliquely, perhaps, in its endorsement of Rousseau’s concept of the noble savage.
—Margaret Gray, latimes.com, 7 June 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for noble savage
Noun
-
There are barbarians with battle axes and swords, robots with laser guns, spaceships, a warlock with a skull for a face.—
Mike Ryan,
IndieWire,
4 June 2026
-
While the original action figure might at first glance look like a classic cartoon barbarian, the character and his world are a wild blend of science fiction, fantasy, action-adventure, and even comedy.—
Chelsea Gohd,
Space.com,
2 June 2026
Noun
-
Or a group of shipwrecked boys turning into savages and killing one another?—
Glenn Whipp,
Los Angeles Times,
8 June 2026
-
The Indians in Westerns had war paint and whooped like savages.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
28 May 2026
Noun
-
That question lives in the wallet, and the wallet, until very recently, did not have the right primitive to answer it.—
Boaz Sobrado,
Forbes.com,
16 May 2026
-
What follows this admission is a piercing dissection not of the art itself, but of frameworks of looking at Black art and life that go beyond racist tropes disguised as appeals to the primitive, the spontaneous, the corporeal.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
12 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Noble savage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/noble%20savage. Accessed 15 Jun. 2026.
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