Where does “Transilvania” come from?
Transilvania (Romanian) comes from Hungarian Erdély, from Hungarian erdő, from Hungarian eredő, from Hungarian ered, from Hungarian -ed, from Hungarian -é-, from Hungarian -d, from Middle Welsh -nt — 3rd person plural verb ending.
Ancestry of “Transilvania”, step by step
Transilvania traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Hungarian Erdély
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hungarian | Erdély | — |
| 2 | Hungarian | erdő | forest; forest, mass, sea, wealth |
| 3 | Hungarian | eredő | present participle of ered: resulting, arising,... |
| 4 | Hungarian | ered | to originate, to come from, to derive from; to... |
| 5 | Hungarian | -ed | your; Used to form the definite second-person... |
| 6 | Hungarian | -é- | — |
| 7 | Hungarian | -d | your; Used in the second-person singular definite... |
| 8 | Middle Welsh | -nt | 3rd person plural verb ending |
via Latin Trānssilvānia
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Latin | Trānssilvānia | — |
| 2 | Latin | Silvānus | — |
| 3 | Latin | silva | wood, forest; orchard, grove |
| 4 | Proto-Indo-European | sēl- | to calm, quiet, be favourable |