forestis

forestis

1. past of foresti

Likely from Proto-West Germanic *furhisti. The shape of the word in Latin recalls the adjective agrestis.

Alternatively, a shortening of an expression like silva *forestis, the latter an unattested adjective derived from forās (“outside”) or forum (“court”) + -est(r)is (adjective ending). In the former case the etymological sense would perhaps be “forest outside of public use” and in the latter case “forest belonging to the court”.^[1]

• foresta

forestis f (genitive forestis); third declension (Early Medieval Latin)

1. a large area reserved for the use of the king or nobility, often a forest and often for hunting or fishing
   • 643–8, charter of Sigebert III founding the monasteries of Stavelot and Malmedy:

     Servorum Dei compendiis opitulante Domino in foreste nostra nuncupante Arduuina [...] consulere cupientes [...] concessimus eis, ut ibi monasteria [...] construerentur

     Desiring, with the Lord's help, to provide for the benefit of the servants of God in our forest called the Ardennes, we granted to them that monasteries should be built there

2. a forest in general

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

• Franco-Provençal: forêt
• Occitan: forèst
• Old Catalan: forest
• Old French: forest (see there for further descendants)

Reflexes of the variant foresta: (possibly some or all via Old French)

• Italian: foresta
  • → Maltese: foresta
• Old French: foreste
• Old Occitan: foresta
• Piedmontese: foresta
• Portuguese: floresta
• Sicilian: furesta
• Spanish: floresta

• Niermeyer, Jan Frederik (1976), “forestis”, in Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden, Boston: E. J. Brill, page 443

forestīs

1. dative/ablative plural of foresta