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sylvan

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sylvan¹

  • /ˈsɪl.vən/ US, UK

Rhymes with -ɪlvən

Where it comes from

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.

adjective more sylvan · most sylvan · silvan

  1. Pertaining to the forest, or woodlands. 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: […]
  2. Residing in a forest or wood. Now, my Sacontalá, you are becomingly decorated: put on this lower veſt, the gift of ſylvan goddeſſes.

    Similar: forestlike, foresty

  3. Wooded, or covered in forest. 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 us

    Similar: grovy

noun sylvans

  1. One who resides in the woods. [H]e hurried to a masquerade-warehouse in Westminster, where he selected the garb of a sylvan, or a man of the woods, together with a guitar, which he entrusted to a porter, bidding him accompany then to St. James's Park. / "But what connexion is there between a sylvan and a French song accompanied
  2. A fabled deity of the wood; a faun, a satyr. And ſeeing it is ſo generall a report, and ſo many auerre it eyther from their owne triall or from others, that are of indubitable honeſtie and credite, that the Syluanes and Fawnes, commonly called Incubi, haue often iniured women, deſiring and acting carnally with them: […]

Sylvan²

Where it comes from

An altered form of French Sylvain, or borrowed from Swedish Sylvan.

proper noun Sylvans

  1. countable, uncountable A surname.
  2. countable, uncountable A community in North Middlesex municipality, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada.
  3. countable, uncountable A ghost town in Panther Creek Township, Cass County, Illinois, United States.
  4. countable, uncountable A township in Osceola County, Michigan, United States.
  5. countable, uncountable A township in Washtenaw County, Michigan.
  6. countable, uncountable A township in Cass County, Minnesota, United States, named after Sylvan Lake.
  7. countable, uncountable A town and unincorporated community therein, in Richland County, Wisconsin, United States.

Translations

Every language

adj pertaining to the forest, or woodlands

Españolselvático, nemoroso
Portuguêssilvestre
Françaissylvain, sylvestre
Русскийлесно́й lesnój

adj wooded

Españolsilvano, silvestre, selvático, silvático
Françaissylvestre

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Cite this
MLA

"sylvan." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sylvan. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

sylvan. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sylvan

Chicago

"sylvan." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sylvan.

BibTeX
@misc{sylvan_2026,
  title = {sylvan},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sylvan},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}