Dictionary:

island

  (ī'lənd)

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:
   1. An unattached kitchen counter providing easy access from all sides.
   2. A raised curbed area, often used to delineate rows of parking spaces or lanes of traffic.
   3. 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.

To make into or as if into an island; insulate: a secluded mansion, islanded by shrubbery and fences.

[Alteration (influenced by ISLE) of Middle English ilond, from Old English īegland : īg, īeg + land, land.]

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 *akwā-, “water.” *Akwā- became *ahwō- in Germanic by Grimm's Law and other sound changes. To this was built the adjective *ahwjō–, “watery.” This then evolved to *awwjō– or *auwi–, which in pre-English became *ēaj–, and finally ēg or īeg 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 īnsula “island,” a component of paenīnsula, “almost-island,” whence our peninsula.

A body of land completely surrounded by water.

For more information on island, visit Britannica.com.

In the design of a parking lot (car park), a raised area having a curb, so located to separate traffic lanes and/or to guide traffic.

A land area surrounded by water and remaining above sea level during high tide.

Land areas exposed only during low tide are called low-tide elevations or drying rocks, reefs, or shoals. The existence of islands has generated numerous disputes, centering primarily on the size of the territorial sea surrounding an island and the determination of what state has sovereignty over a particular island. The size of the territorial sea has become an important question affecting fishing rights and the right of unrestricted passage for foreign vessels. Although the territorial sea of an island is usually determined by reference to its coastal baseline, some adjustments have been recognized in the cases of archipelagoes and islands located close to the mainland.

Determination of what state has title to an island has traditionally depended upon an open and continuous assertion of sovereignty over the island, which is usually, but not always, accompanied by physical presence of some representative of the state.

See: territorial waters.

A cluster of cells or an isolated piece of tissue.

• blood i's — aggregations of mesenchymal cells in the angioblast of the embryo, developing into vascular endothelium and blood cells.
• i. of Calleja — discrete group of very small nerve cells in the olfactory tubercle of the forebrain.
• i's of Langerhans — see islet of Langerhans.
• i. outbreak — outbreak limited to a specific population, usually a herd, caused often by a localized lack of immunity in a closed herd.

Brampton Island just off Queensland

A small island in the Adriatic Sea

An island (IPA: /aɪ.lɪnd/) or isle (IPA: /aɪ.ʌl/) is any piece of land that is completely surrounded by water, above high tide, and isolated from other significant landmasses. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets. A key or cay is another name for a small island or islet. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, IPA [aɪət]. There are two main types of islands: continental islands and oceanic islands. There are also artificial islands. A grouping of geographically and/or geologically related islands is called an archipelago.

The word island comes from Old English ī(e)gland (literally, "watery land"). However, the spelling of the word was modified in the 15th century by association with the etymologically unrelated Old French loanword isle.^[1]

Definition

A small Fijian island.

There is no standard of size which distinguishes islands from islets and continents. Any landmass surrounded by water could be considered an island. Under this terminology all the land masses on the planet could be considered islands.

Also, when defining islands as pieces of land that are completely surrounded by water, narrow bodies of water like rivers and canals are generally left out of consideration^{[citation needed]}. For instance, in France the Canal du Midi connects the Garonne river to the Mediterranean Sea, thereby completing a continuous water connection from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. So technically, the land mass that includes the Iberian Peninsula and the part of France that is south of the Garonne River and the Canal du Midi is completely surrounded by water. For a completely natural example, the Orinoco River splits into two branches near Tamatama, in Amazonas state, Venezuela. The southern branch flows south and joins the Rio Negro, and then the Amazon. Thus, all of the Guianas (Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana) and substantial parts of Brazil and Venezuela are surrounded by (river or ocean) water. These instances are not generally considered islands.

This also helps explain why Africa-Eurasia can be seen as one continuous landmass (and thus technically the biggest island): generally the Suez Canal is not seen as something that divides the land mass in two.

On the other hand, an island may still be described as such despite the presence of a land bridge, e.g., Singapore and its causeway or the various Dutch delta Islands, such as IJsselmonde. The retaining of the island description may therefore be to some degree simply due to historical reasons - though the land bridges are often of a different geological nature (for example sand instead of stone), and thus the islands remain islands in a more scientific sense as well.

Types

Continental islands

Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay

Continental islands are bodies of land that lie on the continental shelf of a continent. Examples include Greenland and Sable Island off North America; Barbados and Trinidad off South America; Great Britain, Ireland and Sicily off Europe; Sumatra and Java off Asia; and New Guinea and Tasmania off Australia.

A special type of continental island is the microcontinental island, which results when a continent is rifted. Examples are Madagascar off Africa; the Kerguelen Islands; and some of the Seychelles.

Another subtype is an island or bar formed by deposition of sediment where a water current loses some of its carrying capacity. An example is barrier islands, which are accumulations of sand deposited by sea currents on the continental shelf. Another example is islands in river deltas or in large rivers. While some are transitory and may disappear if the volume or speed of the current changes, others are stable and long-lived.

Oceanic islands

The islands of Hawai'i are volcanic islands.

Wake Island is a volcanic island that has become an atoll.

Oceanic islands are ones that do not sit on continental shelves. They are volcanic in origin. One type of oceanic island is found in a volcanic island arc. These islands arise from volcanoes where the subduction of one plate under another is occurring. Examples include the Mariana Islands, the Aleutian Islands, Republic of Mauritius and most of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean. Some of the Lesser Antilles and the South Sandwich Islands are the only Atlantic Ocean examples.

Another type of oceanic island occurs where an oceanic rift reaches the surface. There are two examples: Iceland, which is the world's largest volcanic island, and Jan Mayen — both are in the Atlantic.

A third type of oceanic island is formed over volcanic hotspots. A hotspot is more or less stationary relative to the moving tectonic plate above it, so a chain of islands results as the plate drifts. Over long periods of time, this type of island is eventually eroded down and "drowned" by isostatic adjustment, becoming a seamount. Plate movement across a hot-spot produces a line of islands oriented in the direction of the plate movement. An example is the Hawaiian Islands, from Hawaii to Kure, which then extends beneath the sea surface in a more northerly direction as the Emperor Seamounts. Another chain with similar orientation is the Tuamotu Archipelago; its older, northerly trend is the Line Islands. The southernmost chain is the Austral Islands, with its northerly trending part the atolls in the nation of Tuvalu. Tristan da Cunha is an example of a hotspot volcano in the Atlantic Ocean. Another hot spot in the Atlantic is the island of Surtsey, which was formed in 1963.

An atoll is an island formed from a coral reef that has grown on an eroded and submerged volcanic island. The reef rises to the surface of the water and forms a new island. Atolls are typically ring-shaped with a central lagoon. Examples include the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and Line Islands in the Pacific.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Island

• Desert island
• Insularity
• Island biogeography
• Island country
• Islescape
• Islomania
• List of artificial islands
• List of divided islands
• List of fictional islands
• List of islands
• List of islands by area
• List of islands by name
• List of islands by highest point
• List of islands by population
• Phantom island
• Private island
• Reef
• Skerry
• Small islands
• Tidal island

References

1. ^ Island. Dictionary.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-05.

External links

Wikisource has an original article from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica about:

Island

• Definition of island from United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
• Listing of islands from United Nations Island Directory.be-x-old:Востраўeml:Îslands-nl:Eilaandnrm:Îlepap:Islaksh:Ėnselrmy:Dvipzh-yue:島

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - ø, helle
v. tr. - isolere, omslutte, afskære fra omverden

idioms:

• island universe    øverden

Nederlands (Dutch)
eiland, vluchtheuvel, opbouw op schip, oase, eilanden-, isoleren, (als) met eilanden bezaaien

Français (French)
n. - île, (fig) îlot
v. tr. - construire une île, parsemer d'îles, isoler sur une île

idioms:

• island universe    communauté insulaire

Deutsch (German)
n. - Insel, Sockel
v. - inselartig gestalten, mit Inseln versehen, isolieren

idioms:

• island universe    Galaxie

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (γεωγρ.) νησί, διαχωριστική νησίδα οδού
adj. - νησιωτικός

idioms:

• island universe    γαλαξίας

Italiano (Italian)
isola, insulare

idioms:

• island universe    universo chiuso

Português (Portuguese)
n. - ilha (f) (Geog.)
adj. - insular

idioms:

• island universe    qualquer das numerosas galáxias de estrelas

Русский (Russian)
остров, обособлять

idioms:

• island universe    экстрагалактическая туманность

Español (Spanish)
n. - isla, isleta, refugio
v. tr. - aislar, hacer una isla de

idioms:

• island universe    universo aislado, galaxia externa

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - ö, refug
adj. - ö-

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
岛, 安全岛, 岛状物, 双面月台, 使成岛状, 孤立

idioms:

• island universe    岛宇宙

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 島, 安全島, 島狀物, 雙面月臺
v. tr. - 使成島狀, 孤立

idioms:

• island universe    島宇宙

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 섬, 고립된 언덕
v. tr. - 섬으로 만들다, 고립시키다, (섬처럼) 산재해 있다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 島, 島に似たもの, 安全地帯
v. - 島にする, 島に置く

idioms:

• island universe    島宇宙

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) جزيرة (صفه) جزري‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮אי, דבר מבודד, מבנים על סיפון אוניה‬
v. tr. - ‮עשה לאי, מיקם על אי, בודד‬

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