Etymologically
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île

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /il/[1]
  • IPA: /ˈi.lə/[1]
  • IPA (Belgium): /iːl/[1]
  • IPA (Canada): /ɪi̯l/[1]

Forms

île f (plural îles)[1] Old French isle (masculine or feminine), ille (about 1207), ile (about 1360); the Académie wrote isle until 1740 and île from 1762, but isle lasted until the mid-19th century.[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French isle, inherited from Latin īnsula (“island; block of houses”), often pronounced “isula”.[2][4][3][1][5] The origin of the Latin word is unknown; a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean stem also seen in Ancient Greek νῆσος (nêsos, “island”) has been suggested but cannot be proved.[4][6]

Cognate with Italian isola, Spanish isla, Catalan illa, Portuguese ilha and Romanian insulă.[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Benedeit's Voyage de saint Brendan (early 12th century) has isle for land surrounded by water, a sense unchanged since.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

A 1520 translation of Suetonius took up the Latin sense “block of houses”, which later passed to the diminutive îlot.[2][4] From the 17th century les Îles (Furetière, 1690) meant the French possessions in the West Indies and the Indian Ocean; this survives in bois des îles and oiseau des îles.[2][4] In cooking, île flottante is a dessert of whipped egg whites on custard.[6]

Timeline

  • early 12th century – Isle, Benedeit.[2]
  • 1520 – A block of houses.[2]
  • 1529 – The derivative îlot.[7]
  • 1690 – Les Isles, the West Indies, Furetière.[2]
  • 1762 – The spelling île in the Académie.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An island: une île déserte, l'île de la Cité.[6][1]
  2. (dated) Les Îles: the West Indies, bois des îles.[4][6]
  3. Île flottante: a dessert of poached meringue on custard.[6]

Word family

  • îlot
  • îlien
  • presqu'île
  • isoler
  • insulaire
  • péninsule
  • Latin īnsula

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
  3. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 728b
  6. ^ a b c d e f Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
  7. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France