silva

See also: Silva and silvă

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin silva. Doublet of selva.

Noun

silva (plural silvas or silvae)

1. (forestry) The forest trees of a particular area
   • 1909, Willis Linn Jepson, The Trees of California, page 13:

     The most interesting and striking features of the silva of California relate to its composition, the geographical distribution of the species and their biological history.

Alternative forms

• sylva

Derived terms

• silvics
• silviculture
• silvology
• silvopastoral
• silvopastural

Related terms

• sylvan (see for more terms)

Anagrams

• Alvis, Livas, Salvi, Slavi, Sliva, Vasil, Vials, Vilas, vails, valis, vials, vilas

Galician

Silvas

Etymology

From Old Galician-Portuguese silva, from Latin silva (“forest”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsilba/ [ˈs̺il.β̞ɐ]
• Rhymes: -ilba
• Hyphenation: sil‧va

Noun

silva f (plural silvas)

1. bramble, blackberry bush
   • 1460, José Antonio Souto Cabo, editor, Crónica de Santa María de Íria, Santiago: Ediciós do Castro, page 101:

     vijã grande[s] lumes de candeas arder de noyte et de dia en huũ monte muy espeso de muytas aruores et siluas, a oyto mjlias de Yria

     they saw large candle fires, burning day and night, in a very close forest, of trees and bambles, eight milles from Iria

   • 1884, Marcial Valladares Núñez, Diccionario gallego-castellano, s.v. silva:

     Tente, silva; non me prendas, que n'estou n'a miña tèrra (traditional song)

     Hold yourself, bramble, don't catch me, 'cos I'm not in my country

2. (archaic) forest
3. white stripe on a horse head

Related terms

• Silva
• silva madre
• Silvaboa
• Silvachá
• Silvadrosa
• Silvaescura
• Silval
• silvar
• Silvar
• Silvares
• Silvarredonda
• Silvea
• silveira
• Silveira
• Silveira Vella
• Silvela
• Silvosa
• Silvoso
• Silvouta

References

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “silua”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “silva”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “silva”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “silva”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “silva”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Further reading

• “silva”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026
• “silva”, in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (in Galician), 2014–2026

Latin

Silva

Alternative forms

• silua (poetic)
• sylva

Etymology

Traditionally derived from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel- (“firewood, wood, beam, board, frame, threshold”), and compared with Ancient Greek ὕλη (húlē, “wood, timber”) and Old English syl (“sill, threshold, foundation”). However, De Vaan is implicitly skeptical of this derivation, and leaves the origin open.

Pronunciation

• silva:
  • (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈsɪɫ.wa]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈsil.va]
• silvā:
  • (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈsɪɫ.waː]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈsil.va]

Noun

silva f (genitive silvae); first declension

1. wood; forest
2. orchard; grove

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	silva	silvae
genitive	silvae	silvārum
dative	silvae	silvīs
accusative	silvam	silvās
ablative	silvā	silvīs
vocative	silva	silvae

Derived terms

• silvānus
• Silvānus
• silvāticus
• silvēscō
• silvestris
• Silvia
• silvicaedus
• silvicola
• silvicolens
• silvicomus
• silvicultrīx
• silvifragus
• silviger
• Silvius
• silvōsus
• silvula

Descendants

• Italo-Romance:
  • Italian: selva
• Balkan Romance:
  • Romanian: selbă
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: selve
• Gallo-Italic:
  • Romagnol: sèiba, siba, sélva
• Gallo-Romance:
  • Catalan: selva
  • Occitan: selva
• Ibero-Romance:
  • Aragonese: selva
  • Asturian: selva, silva
  • Old Galician-Portuguese: silva
    • Galician: silva
    • Portuguese: silva
  • Old Spanish: selva
    • Ladino: selva / סילב׳ה
    • Spanish: selva
  • Portuguese: selva (see there for further descendants)
• Borrowings:
  • → English: silva, sylva
  • → French: sylve
  • → Interlingua: silva
  • → Romanian: silvă

References

• “silva”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “silva”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "silva", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “silva”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • wooded hills: montes vestiti silvis
    
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 564

Portuguese

silvas

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsiw.vɐ/ [ˈsiʊ̯.vɐ]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsiw.vɐ/ [ˈsiʊ̯.vɐ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈsiw.va/ [ˈsiʊ̯.va]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈsil.vɐ/ [ˈsiɫ.vɐ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈsil.vɐ/ [ˈsiɫ.vɐ]
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈsil.bɐ/ [ˈsiɫ.βɐ]

• Homophone: Silva
• Hyphenation: sil‧va

Etymology 1

From Old Galician-Portuguese silva, from Latin silva, from Proto-Indo-European *swel-, *sel- (“mountain, ridge, forest”). Compare the doublet selva and Galician silva.

The /i/ is puzzling. Philologist Leite de Vasconcelos felt that the word was not a Latinism and conjectured a term spīna *silvea with the same suffix as ligneus and pīneus, where the close post-tonic vowel would cause the stressed vowel to rise, as in marisma and sirgo.

Noun

silva f (plural silvas)

1. bramble (any of various thorny shrubs, especially those in the family Rubus)

   Synonyms: espinheiro, sarça

2. (in particular) blackberry (Rubus fruticosus)

   Synonyms: amoreira, amora-silvestre, amoreira-silvestre

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

silva

1. inflection of silvar:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• “silva”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “silva”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Romanian

Noun

silva f

1. definite singular nominative of silvă

Tok Pisin

Chemical element (edit)
Ag Atomic number 47 silva
Classification data Period 5 Group 11 Block d-block Class transition metal
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Etymology

From English silver.

Noun

silva

1. silver