sylvan
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: sĭl'vən
ipa: /ˈsɪl.vən/
rhymes: -ɪlvən
Forms: form: more sylvan
form: most sylvan
form: silvan
Etymology: Borrowed from Medieval Latin sylvanus, possibly via Middle French sylvain, from Latin silvanus, cognate with Latin Silvānus (“Roman god of the woods”), from silva (“forest”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel- (“beam, board, frame, threshold”). The ⟨y⟩ in sylvanus and its descendants is due to influence from Ancient Greek ῡ̔́λη (hū́lē, “wood, matter”), transliterated in the Latin style as hyle. Analysable as sylva (“silva”) + -an.
Senses: examples: text: Broke by the jutting Land, on either ſide: / In double Streams the briny Waters glide. / Betwixt two rows of Rocks, a Sylvan Scene / Appears above, and Groves for ever green: […]
ref: 1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 208, lines 231–234:
text: A little cabinet stood beside, with some of its shuttles and drawers open, displaying hawks-bells, dog-whistles, instruments for trimming a falcon's feathers, bridle-bits of various constructions, and other trifles connected with sylvan sport.
ref: 1826, [Walter Scott], chapter III, in Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, →OCLC, pages 87–88:
text: [T]he traditional memory of a rural and a sylvan region, such as Warwickshire at that time was, is usually exact as well as tenacious; and, with respect to [William] Shakespeare in particular, we may presume it to have been full and circumstantial through the generation succeeding to his own, not only from the curiosity, and perhaps something of a scandalous interest, which would pursue the motions of one living so large a part of his life at a distance from his wife, but also from the final reverence and honor which would settle upon the memory of a poet so preëminently successful; […]
ref: 1850, Thomas De Quincey, “Shakspeare”, in Biographical Essays, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC, page 4:
text: We were now within the boundaries of Minnesota, and this prairie was yet the habitation of Wapasha (Red Leaf) and his Sioux band. I never beheld a more charming silvan picture than this prairie presented; […]
ref: 1853 July, [Benson John Lossing], “Sketches on the Upper Mississippi”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume VII, number XXXVIII, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, 329 & 331 Pearl Street, Franklin Square, →OCLC, page 182, column 2:
text: The particular trees may have been cut down long ago and forgotten; but the name survives to perpetuate its sylvan history. There may be no more a wood of Limes at Lyndhurst, there may be no Oaks at Oakville, Elms at Elmley, or Ashes at Ashton; but still the names will always suggest—at least—a probability of sylvan origin.
ref: 1886, Francis George Heath, “Sylvan Nomenclature”, in Sylvan Winter, London: Kegan Paul Trench, & Co., 1, Paternoster Square, →OCLC, page 320:
text: Over the course of the nineteenth century, an entity known as the 'German forest' arose out of Central Europe's sylvan diversity.
ref: 2002, Jeffrey K. Wilson, “Introduction”, in The German Forest: Nature, Identity, and the Contestation of a National Symbol, 1871–1914 (German and European Studies), Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 1; republished Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto Press, 2012, →ISBN, page 3:
glosses: Pertaining to the forest, or woodlands.
examples: text: Now, my Sacontalá, you are becomingly decorated: put on this lower veſt, the gift of ſylvan goddeſſes.
ref: 1790, Cálidás [i.e., Kālidāsa]; [William Jones, transl.], Sacontalá; or, The Fatal Ring: An Indian Drama. By Cálidás. Translated from the Original Sanscrit and Prácrit, London: Printed for Edwards, Pall Mall; by J. Cooper, No. 31, Bow Street, Covent Garden, with his new-invented ink, →OCLC, act IV, page 46:
glosses: Residing in a forest or wood.
examples: text: Nicolet Area Technical College, a Rhinelander green centerpiece, gets high marks not just for its management of more than two hundred acres of sylvan land and its thousand feet of frontage along the pristine shores of Lake Julia, but for being Wisconsin's college campus leader in renewable energy use.
ref: 2011, Pat[ricia J.] Dillon, Lynne [Smith] Diebel, “Enter, Northwoods: Rhinelander Area”, in Green Travel Guide to Northern Wisconsin: Environmentally and Socially Responsible Travel, Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page 134:
text: This house in McLean, Va., has just about everything a nature lover desires: soothing sounds of the Potomac River, a sylvan setting with countless species of birds and other wildlife, access to hiking, fishing and canoeing — and all within a half-hour of downtown Washington and minutes from the Beltway and George Washington Parkway.
ref: 2021 November 12, Kathy Orton, “Nature lovers house in McLean, Va., for sale for $7 million”, in Washington Post:
glosses: Wooded, or covered in forest.
Synonyms: sense: of or like a forest
word: forestlike
sense: of or like a forest
word: foresty
sense: of or like a grove
word: grovy
Derived terms: anthrosylvan
sylvanite
sylvanshine
Related terms: Pennsylvania
Pittsylvania
savage
Silas
silva
Silvanus
Silvia
silvicolous
silvicultural
silviculture
Silvius
silvology
silvopastoral
silvopastural
silvopasture
Spotsylvania
sylph
sylva
Sylvania
sylvatic
Sylvester
Sylvia
Sylvie
Transylvania
arboreal
nemorous