| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| island |
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| SYLLABICATION: | is·land |
| PRONUNCIATION: |    l nd |
| NOUN: | 1. abbr. Isl. or Is. or I. A land mass, especially one smaller than a continent, entirely surrounded by water. 2. Something resembling an island, especially in being isolated or surrounded, as: a. An unattached kitchen counter providing easy access from all sides. b. A raised curbed area, often used to delineate rows of parking spaces or lanes of traffic. c. The superstructure of a ship, especially an aircraft carrier. 3. Anatomy A cluster of cells differing in structure or function from the cells constituting the surrounding tissue. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: is·land·ed, is·land·ing, is·lands
To make into or as if into an island; insulate: a secluded mansion, islanded by shrubbery and fences. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Alteration (influenced by isle) of Middle English ilond, from Old English egland : g, eg; see akw- - in Appendix I + land, land; see lendh- in Appendix I. | | WORD HISTORY: | It may seem hard to believe, but Latin aqua, “water,” is related to island, which originally meant “watery land.” Aqua comes almost unchanged from Indo-European *akw-, “water.” *Akw- became *ahw - in Germanic by Grimm's Law and other sound changes. To this was built the adjective *ahwj–, “watery.” This then evolved to *awwj– or *auwi–, which in pre-English became * aj–, and finally g or eg in Old English. Island, spelled iland, first appears in Old English in King Alfred's translation of Boethius about a.d. 888; the spellings igland and ealond appear in contemporary documents. The s in island is due to a mistaken etymology, confusing the etymologically correct English iland with French isle. Isle comes ultimately from Latin nsula “island,” a component of paennsula, “almost-island,” whence our peninsula.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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