On my homepage I write that I aim to celebrate the ” silvan” world: here’s an etymology.
Silva or sylva is a Latin word meaning ‘wood or forest’, with silvan or sylvan meaning ‘of the wood or forest’.
In forestry we use the word silviculture, meaning literally culture of forests. Foresters are sometimes called silviculturists.
Silvanus was the Roman God of forests, and also fields and boundaries. A Roman farmer would regularly conduct a sacrifice and conduct a tour of the estate’s perimeter to protect it from natural and supernatural hazards by lustration, or ritual purification.
In the modern world it is the root, excuse the pun, for many tree and forestry organisations including my own Sylva Foundation. I like to describe myself as a silvologist: someone who studies trees, woods and forests.
Gabriel Hemery
