Noun: selva
Gender: f
Hyphenation: sél‧va
sèl‧va
| Singular f | selva |
| Plural f | selve |
Sample Sentences
-
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita ¶ mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, ¶ ché la diritta via era smarrita. (Midway upon the journey of our life ¶ I found myself within a dark forest, ¶ for the straightforward pathway had been lost.) [1300s–1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto I”, in Inferno [Hell], lines 1–3; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate], 2ⁿᵈ revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:]
-
[...] e non si trasformasse in verde selva,
-
per uscirmi di braccia come il giorno (… and may she not be changed to green woodland,
-
issuing from my arms, as on the day
-
when Apollo pursued her down here on earth.) [1374, Francesco Petrarca, Il Canzoniere, Andrea Bettini (1858), p.188, Capitolo XIII]
-
Non lasciavam l'andar perch'ei dicessi,
-
ma passavam la selva tuttavia,
-
la selva, dico, di spiriti spessi. (We ceased not to advance because he spake,
-
but still were passing onward through the forest,
-
the forest, say I, of thick-crowded ghosts.) [1321, Dante Alighieri, La divina commedia: Inferno, Le Monnier, published 1994, Canto IV, p. 57, vv. 64-66:]
Nouns inflected like selva
monferrina,
ossichinolina,
palestra,
nipoteria,
gualdrappa,
bacinella,
minicassetta,
bestemmia,
geostoria,
sferra,
sferza,
sfilza,
triplofonia,
fiduciaria,
meteoroscopia,
ipersonnia,
sovrabbondanza,
corbezzola,
pseudoestesia,
viminata, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Latin silva, from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel- (“beam, board, frame, threshold”). See: Latin Nouns '
silva'.
Translations