île French · revision 16587

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=early 12th century, Benedeit, Voyage de saint Brendan (isle)|origins=la īnsula}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /il/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA: /ˈi.lə/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Belgium): /iːl/^(Wiktionary)

+ * IPA (Canada): /ɪi̯l/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''île''' ''f'' (plural îles)^(Wiktionary)

+ 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.^(TLFi)^(GLLF 1989)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|fro|isle]], [[inh|la|īnsula|t=island; block of houses]], often pronounced “isula”.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)^(GLLF 1989)^(Wiktionary)^(FEW|4, 728b) The origin of the Latin word is unknown; a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean stem also seen in [[grc|νῆσος|tr=nêsos|t=island]] has been suggested but cannot be proved.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ Cognate with [[it|isola]], [[es|isla]], [[ca|illa]], [[pt|ilha]] and [[ro|insulă]].^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Benedeit's ''Voyage de saint Brendan'' (early 12th century) has ''isle'' for land surrounded by water, a sense unchanged since.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ A 1520 translation of Suetonius took up the Latin sense “block of houses”, which later passed to the diminutive [[îlot]].^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) 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''.^(TLFi)^(DHLF 1992) In cooking, ''île flottante'' is a dessert of whipped egg whites on custard.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * early 12th century – ''Isle'', Benedeit.^(TLFi)

+ * 1520 – A block of houses.^(TLFi)

+ * 1529 – The derivative ''îlot''.^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989)

+ * 1690 – ''Les Isles'', the West Indies, Furetière.^(TLFi)

+ * 1762 – The spelling ''île'' in the Académie.^(TLFi)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An [[m|en|island]]: ''une île déserte'', ''l'île de la Cité''.^(Petit Robert 2007)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(dated)'' ''Les Îles'': the West Indies, ''bois des îles''.^(DHLF 1992)^(Petit Robert 2007)

+ # ''Île flottante'': a dessert of poached meringue on custard.^(Petit Robert 2007)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[îlot]]

+ * [[îlien]]

+ * [[presqu'île]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[isoler]]

+ * [[insulaire]]

+ * [[péninsule]]

+ * [[la|īnsula]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}