sb. and a. Also 6 -ein, 6–7 -ane, (9 -ain). [ad. F. sylvain (only sb.; in Marot, 1539, silvans, sylvans pl.) or ad. L. silvānus, sylvānus (in early use only sb. fem. pl. silvānæ goddesses of the woods), f. silva, sylva: see prec. and -AN.
The Latin masc. adj. Silvanus was used as the proper name of a divinity of the fields and forests, identified with Pan, etc.; it has been occas. anglicized as Silvan, e.g., Milton, Comus, 268; Il Pens., 134.)
A. sb. One who (or something that) inhabits a wood or forest; a being of the woods.
a. Mythol. An imaginary being supposed to haunt woods or groves; a deity or spirit of the woods.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., I. 222. Satyres, Faunes, and sundry Nymphes, with Silvanes eke beside.
1586. L. Bryskett, in Spenser’s Astrophel, Aeglogue Sir P. Sidney, 116. Ye Siluans, Fawnes, and Satyres, that emong These thickets oft haue daunst after his pipe.
1616. Drummond of Hawth., Poems (S.T.S.), I. 39. Goate-feete Syluans.
1675. Shadwell, Psyche, I. Then an Entry danc’d by four Sylvans, and four Dryads, to rustick Musick.
a. 1758. Ramsay, Yellow haird Laddie, ii. Silvans and Fairies unseen danc’d around.
1831. Scott, Ct. Rob., xvi. The ancient belief in the god Pan, with his sylvans and satyrs.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil, II. i. Ionic columns of black oak, with a profusion of fruits and flowers, and heads of stags and sylvans.
b. A person dwelling in a wood, or in a woodland region; a forester; a rustic.
1589. Puttenham, Engl. Poesie, I. xv. (Arb.), 49. The Satyre was pronounced by rusticall and naked Syluanes speaking out of a bush.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 146. Daily disturbance from these Sylvans and Mountaineers.
1703. Pope, Vertumnus, 20. Her private orchards, wall’d on ev’ry side, To lawless sylvans all access deny’d.
1824. Scott, St. Ronan’s, xxv. They [sc. two girls] were encountered by a country fellow … up came cousin Francis…, and soon put the silvan to flight.
c. An animal, esp. a bird, living in or frequenting the woods.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xiii. 44. Hunts-up to the Morn the feath’red Sylvans sing.
1613–6. W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. iii. 891. A little grove … Where every morne a quire of Silvans sung.
1831. J. Wilson, in Blackw. Mag., XXIX. 291. Shyest of the winged silvans, the cushat.
1831. Scott, Ct. Rob., xvi. The sylvan [an orang-outang] looked fixedly upon Count Robert, almost as if he understood the language used to him.
d. ? A forest tree, shrub, etc. rare.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., X. 498. Clydes fragrant fields … Bedeckt with Siluans.
1787. Generous Attachment, II. 97. The verdant sylvans.
B. adj. 1. Belonging, pertaining, or relating to, situated or performed in, associated with, or characteristic of, a wood or woods. (In earliest use of deities or nymphs: see A.)
1580–3. Greene, Mamillia, II. Wks. (Grosart), II. 283. The Syluein Nimph Oenone.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, II. iv. (1912), 172. A goodly white marble stone, that should seeme had bene dedicated in ancient time to the Silvan gods.
1638. Cowley, Love’s Riddle, I. i. May all the Sylvan Deityes Bee still propitious to you.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, IX. 549. If e’re my Pious Father, for my sake, Did grateful Off’rings on thy Altars make; Or I increas’d them with my Silvan toils.
1741. Shenstone, Judgm. Hercules, 57. The silvan choir, whose numbers sweetly flow’d.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 66, ¶ 9. I once knew a man … who … found himself irresistibly determined to sylvan honors;… he … spent whole days in the woods, pursuing game.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., II. ii. Good hawk and hound for sylvan sport. Ibid. (1821), Kenilw., xxxiv. Elizabeth’s silvan dress … was of a pale blue silk. Ibid. (1831), Ct. Rob., xxvii. A sylvan man, or native of the woods [an orang-outang].
1847. L. Hunt, Jar Honey, viii. (1848), 104. The Italians identify the pastoral with the sylyan drama.
1885. R. Buchanan, Annan Water, viii. Deep Sylvan silence.
b. Of woods as a subject of cultivation or observation. rare.
1830. J. G. Strutt, Sylva Brit., 42. These would form a volume in themselves, a Sylvan Chronicle of times past.
1834. Tait’s Mag., I. 665/1. The new system of silvan-culture introduced by Violaines, for the regeneration of the Royal forests.
2. Consisting of or formed by woods or trees.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., Wks. (Grosart), V. 120. As many sortes of shrill breasted birdes as the Summer hath allowed for singing men in hir siluane chappels.
1615. Chapman, Odyssey, XIX. 599. Steepe Parnassus, on whose forehead grow All syluan off-springs round.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 377. So to the Silvan Lodge, They came.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., VI. 15. And all the Silvan reign shall sing of thee.
1784. Cowper, Task, I. 588. The houseless rovers of the sylvan world.
a. 1822. Shelley, Fragm. Unfinished Drama, 225. The pillared stems Of the dark sylvan temple.
1857. Livingstone, Trav., xii. 212. The islands at a little distance seem great rounded masses of sylvan vegetation.
3. Furnished with, abounding in, or having as its chief feature, woods or trees; wooded, woody.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 140. Cedar, and Pine, and Firr, and branching Palm A Silvan Scene.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, XI. 874. To share with me The Silvan Shades.
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxxiv. All the charms of sylvan and pastoral landscape.
1798. Wordsw., Tintern Abbey, 56. How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee, O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro’ the woods!
1814. Scott, Wav., xxii. The glen widened into a silvan amphitheatre.
1870. Edgar, Runnymede, 23. The towns assumed a sylvan aspect, and the churches were converted into leafy tabernacles.
1880. Ld. Beaconsfield, in Daily News, 27 March, 6/5. Sylvan scenery never palls.
1883. Stevenson, Silverado Sq., 60. The whole neighbourhood … now so quiet and sylvan, was once alive with mining camps.
Hence Sylvanity (sil-), sylvan quality or character; Sylvanize v. trans., to render sylvan; Sylvanly adv., in a sylvan manner or style; Sylvanry, sylvan scenery.
1832. J. Wilson, in Blackw. Mag., XXXII. 852. Manners … full of rurality, or *silvanity, or urbanity.
1907. Times, 1 July, 7/4. Mr. Knight’s ‘Sylvanus Urban’ … combined the urbanity of a true man of letters with the sylvanity (if it may be called so) of a Yorkshireman.
1835. Blackw. Mag., XXXVII. 606. The winds … would … have called from their sleep of years the satyrs to *sylvanize the spot again.
1800. Coleridge, in Robberds, Mem. W. Taylor (1843), I. 318. Something very *sylvanly romantic.
1844. Mrs. Browning, Lost Bower, xxiv. The wild hop … And the large-leaved columbine, Arch of door and window-mullion, did right sylvanly entwine.
1821. New Monthly Mag., II. 46. Perch’d upon a green and sunny hill, Gazing upon the *sylvanry below.
1901. Pall Mall G., 29 May, 1/3. You shall find … quite unsuspected sylvanry in … Kensington Gardens.
