Editing Forest (section)

== Etymology ==
[[File:Niepolomice oli 2013251.jpg|thumb|right|Since the 13th century, the [[Niepołomice Forest]] in [[Poland]] has had special use and protection. In this view from space, different coloration can indicate different functions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=82464 |title=A Polish Royal Forest |publisher=[[NASA Earth Observatory]] |date=29 November 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140104205531/http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=82464 |archive-date=4 January 2014}}</ref>]]

The word ''[[Wikt:forest|forest]]'' derives from the [[Old French]] ''forest'' (also ''forès''), denoting "forest, vast expanse covered by trees"; ''forest'' was first introduced into English as the word denoting wild land set aside for hunting<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.broadland.gov.uk/PDF/Broadsheet_093_-_April_2011_%283%29.pdf |title=Broadsheet: The News Letter for Broadland Tree Wardens |volume=Issue 093 |date=April 2011 |access-date=16 November 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129030802/http://www.broadland.gov.uk/PDF/Broadsheet_093_-_April_2011_%283%29.pdf |archive-date=29 November 2014}}</ref> without necessarily having trees on the land.<ref>{{cite book|first=E. |last=Ritter |editor-first=D. |editor-last=Dauksta |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XxB-HZlbTe0C&q=etymology+of+forest&pg=PA180 |title=New Perspectives on People and Forests |volume=9 |series=World Forests |publisher=Springer |year=2011 |isbn=978-94-007-1149-5}}</ref> Possibly a borrowing, probably via [[Old Frankish|Frankish]] or [[Old High German]], of the [[Medieval Latin]] {{Lang|la-x-medieval|foresta}}, denoting "open wood", [[Carolingian]] scribes first used ''foresta'' in the [[Carolingian Empire#Capitularies|capitularies]] of [[Charlemagne]], specifically to denote the royal hunting grounds of the king. The word was not endemic to the [[Romance languages]], e.g., native words for ''forest'' in the Romance languages derived from the [[Latin]] ''silva'', which denoted "forest" and "[[Woodland|wood(land)]]" ([[cf.]] the English ''sylva'' and ''sylvan''; the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese ''selva''; the Romanian ''silvă''; the Old French ''selve''). Cognates of forest in Romance languages—e.g., the Italian ''foresta'', Spanish and Portuguese ''floresta'', etc.—are all ultimately derivations of the French word.

[[File:The forest near Blatets, Vinitsa.JPG|thumb|A forest near [[Vinica, North Macedonia|Vinitsa]], [[North Macedonia]] ]]

The precise origin of Medieval Latin {{Lang|la-x-medieval|foresta}} is obscure. Some authorities claim the word derives from the [[Late Latin]] phrase ''forestam silvam'', denoting "the outer wood"; others claim the word is a Latinisation of the Frankish *''forhist'', denoting "forest, wooded country", and was assimilated to ''forestam silvam'', pursuant to the common practice of Frankish scribes. The Old High German ''forst'' denoting "forest"; [[Middle Low German]] ''vorst'' denoting "forest"; [[Old English]] ''fyrhþ'' denoting "forest, woodland, game preserve, hunting ground" (English ''[[wikt:frith|frith]]''); and [[Old Norse]] ''fýri'', denoting "[[coniferous forest]]"; all of which derive from the [[Proto-Germanic]] *''furhísa-'', *''furhíþija-'', denoting "a [[Fir wood|fir-wood]], ''coniferous'' forest", from the [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] *''perk<sup>w</sup>u-'', denoting "a ''coniferous'' or [[Mountain forests|mountain forest]], wooded height" all attest to the Frankish *''forhist''.

Uses of ''forest'' in English to denote any uninhabited and unenclosed area are presently considered archaic.<ref name="oed" /> The [[Norman conquest of England|Norman rulers of England]] introduced the word as a legal term, as seen in Latin texts such as [[Magna Carta]], to denote uncultivated land that was legally designated for hunting by feudal [[nobility]] (see [[Royal Forest|royal forest]]).<ref name="oed"/><ref>{{Cite book |title=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin]] Company |location=Boston |year=1996 |edition=3 |chapter=forest, noun |isbn=978-0-395-44895-3}}</ref>

These hunting forests did not necessarily contain any trees. Because that often included significant areas of woodland, "forest" eventually came to connote woodland in general, regardless of tree density.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}} By the beginning of the fourteenth century, English texts used the word in all three of its senses: common, legal, and archaic.<ref name="oed">{{cite web |url=http://www.oed.com/ |title=forest, noun |website=[[Oxford English Dictionary]] online edition |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |access-date=22 May 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111125659/http://www.oed.com/ |archive-date=11 January 2008}}</ref> Other English words used to denote "an area with a high density of trees" are ''firth'', ''frith'', ''holt'', ''weald'', ''wold'', ''wood'', and ''woodland''. Unlike ''forest'', these are all derived from Old English and were not borrowed from another language. Some present classifications reserve ''woodland'' for denoting a locale with more open space between trees, and distinguish kinds of woodlands as ''open forests'' and ''closed forests'', premised on their [[crown cover]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.daff.gov.au/brs/forest-veg/nfi/forest-info/what-is |website=Australian Government/Department of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Forestry/Rural Areas |title=What is a Forest? |date=28 March 2007 |access-date=25 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091009061955/http://www.daff.gov.au/brs/forest-veg/nfi/forest-info/what-is |archive-date=9 October 2009}}</ref> Finally, ''sylva'' (plural ''sylvae'' or, less classically, ''sylvas'') is a peculiar English spelling of the Latin ''silva'', denoting a "woodland", and has precedent in English, including its plural forms. While its use as a [[synonym]] of ''forest'', and as a [[Latin]]ate word denoting a woodland, may be admitted; in a specific technical sense it is restricted to denoting the ''species'' of trees that comprise the woodlands of a region, as in its sense in the subject of [[silviculture]].<ref>Confer John Evelyn, FRS, ''[[Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber|Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesty's Dominions]]'' (1664); and the title of and use ''passim'' in Edward Step, FLS, ''Wayside and Woodland Trees: A Pocket Guide to the British Sylva'' (Frederick Warne and Company Limited, London and New York, [many editions]).</ref> The resorting to ''sylva'' in English indicates more precisely the denotation that the use of ''forest'' intends.