sylvan

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"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel- ("beam, board, frame, threshold"). The ⟨y⟩ in sylvanus and its descendants comes from the influence of Ancient Greek ῡ̔́λη (hū́lē, "wood, matter"), transliterated in the Latin style as hyle. It can be analysed as sylva ("silva") + -an.