English → Latin
“forest” in Latin
silvawood; forest; orchard; grovesaltusA forest or mountain pasture; a pass, dale, ravine, glade.; A defile, a narrow pass; A saltus, a large unit of area equamagnusgreat, large, big; (of things) vast, extensive, spacious (of physical size or quantity); great, grand, mighty, noble, loDryasa woodnymph, a dryad (a nymph whose life is bound up with that of her tree); a druidessHamādryasHamadryad, mother of the hamadryads (woodnymphs)administrātiōadministration, management, government (of a city, body); the handling, operation (of an affair)
The English word forest itself goes back to Latin forīs, through forestis.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
forest
silva (general term PROP. and IMPROP.): saltus (the mountainous forest with pastures, a wild forest, especially met with in rough defiles); plur., continentes silvae (Caes., B.G., 3, 28). A thick forest, magna, densa silva: a forest-nymph, nympha silvae (poetically, nympha silvicola); Dryas, Hamadryas (Δρυάς, Ἁμαδρυάς, nymph of the trees): “the woods and forests” (as office under an administration), *silvarum cura or administratio; the holder of it, *a consiliis rei saltuariae.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for forest?
- The usual Latin words for “forest” are silva, saltus, magnus; also Dryas, Hamādryas, administrātiō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.