island

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈaɪ.lənd/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English iland, yland,^[2][3] inherited from Old English īegland, īgland,^[4][2][5] from Old English īeg (“island”) + land (“land”).^[2][6] Old English īeg is from Proto-Germanic *aujō (“thing on the water”),^[4][5] built on the Germanic word for “water”, Old English ēa,^[5][2] from Proto-Indo-European *akwā- (“water”), the source also of Latin aqua.^[3][4][2] Similar compounds are Old Frisian eiland, Dutch eiland and Old Norse eyland.^[2][4] The second part was added to distinguish ieg from similar words such as ēa “water”.^[4] The -s- came in the 16th century from isle, a word of quite different origin, which came through French from Latin.^[7][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English īgland is found before 899, in Alfred's translation of Boethius;^[2] the OED's first quotation is from about 888.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In place names, Old English ieg was often used of slightly raised dry ground in a marsh,^[4] and island was used of high ground surrounded by marsh from 1620–55.^[8] The Middle English forms were yland and iland; under the influence of isle the spelling isle land is found in 1546 and island in 1598, in Hakluyt's Voyages, becoming established by the late 17th century.^[2] A traffic island is from 1869,^[8] and an isolated group of cells in the body from 1879.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 888 – Old English īgland.^[8]
• c. 1300 – yland.^[4]
• 1546 – isle land.^[2]
• 1598 – island, in Hakluyt.^[2]
• 1661 – verb, to make into an island.^[8]
• 1869 – a traffic island.^[8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A piece of land smaller than a continent, completely surrounded by water.
2. Something isolated or surrounded, like an island: an island of calm.
3. A raised area in a road for pedestrians; a traffic island.
4. (anatomy) A group of cells different from the surrounding tissue.

Verb

1. To make into an island; to isolate.

Word family

• islandish
• islandless

Related words

• archipelago
• insular
• isle
• islet
• isolate
• peninsula
• aqua
• ait
• eyot
• land

Usage notes

In Kent the island meant the Isle of Thanet.^[9]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)