Island

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Rockall in the north-east Atlantic is a very remote rocky island of around 570 m².

Eiland is an outdated name for an island and is mostly used today to mean "small island".

Etymology and history of words

The term island is in the 13th century from Middle Low German (i) e lant , eyglant (as well as medium-Dutch isle from the Old Frisian been borrowed) taken; the current form has been common since the 16th century. The first component of an "island" goes back to ancient Germanic * awjō "floodplain, island" (from * agwjō "that belonging to the water, surrounded by water", a formation of * ahwō "water, waters"). Kluge interprets island as "island country". In Middle Low and High German, the first component was reinterpreted and the compound word folk etymology was transformed into einland “ isolated land”.

The old Frisian word for "island" was eyland or alond . From the Middle Dutch are heylant and eylant handed. The Middle Low German had more words and pronunciations for this: Elant , eilant , einlant , eiglant or olant . Other Middle Low German words for island were och , oie or oge .

The Old English had igland and iegland where the modern English word Iceland (Island) comes. The letter 'S' was added because it was mistakenly believed that the English word was related to the Middle French word isle (from Latin insula ). This and similar etymologically incorrect spellings were able to prevail because knowledge of Latin enjoyed great prestige at the time and a word was considered finer if it had a Latin origin.

In the 17th century, standard German took over the word "Eiland". The spelling at that time was mainly "Eyland". The spelling was not officially established until the Orthographic Conference of 1876. The previous meaning "island" without reference to the size has since shifted to the current main meaning "smaller (small) island", "islet" (for which the diminutive form Eiländchen had previously existed).

For determination

The term "island" was not clearly defined. So you can't say how big an island can be. Most of the islands are not more than 100 km² in size. However, there are also islands that are over 1000 km² in size and which are still referred to as islands. The remoteness of the island also has an influence.

For example, the border between “ Insel ” and “ Holm ” on the Faroe Islands is around 0.7 km².

Synonyms

Another word for “small island” is Holm (cf. Stockholm ), which also comes from Low German. The Pomeranian name for (small) island is Oie (see Greifswalder Oie ). The word “Oie” has a common origin with the Frisian oog and the Danish Ø .

Similar terms from other languages

Remarks

  1. ^ Friedrich Kluge , edited by Elmar Seebold: Etymological Dictionary of the German Language . 24th, revised and expanded edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 978-3-11-017473-1 , keyword: "Eiland", p. 232 .
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Pfeifer (head): Etymological dictionary of German . 2nd Edition. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-05-000626-9 , keyword: "Eiland".
  3. ↑ Iceland (n.) In the Online Etymology Dictionary (English).
  4. ↑ Cf. also with Klopstock : are you hesitating to cross over from the Albion isle? Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm , German Dictionary , Vol. 3, EA 1862, Munich 1984, Sp. 105.
  5. ^ Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Dictionary , Vol. 3, EA 1862, Munich 1984, Sp. 106 ( PDF file ).

See also

Web links

Wiktionary: Eiland  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations