the.com/island
a piece of land that decided crowds were optional and views were mandatory.
means A piece of land completely surrounded by water, whether a tiny speck in the sea or something the size of Greenland.
from From Old English 'igland' — literally 'island-land,' since the old word 'ig' (or 'ieg') already meant island, making the whole thing a charming redundancy. The sneaky 's' is an impostor: it was glued in around the 1500s by writers who wrongly assumed the word was related to the French-derived 'isle' (from Latin 'insula'). It never was. So that silent 's' you write but never say is a centuries-old spelling mistake that simply refused to leave.
- new arrivals
- Volcanoes still birth fresh islands from the seafloor.
- dwarf rule
- Isolated islands shrink elephants, grow rats absurdly large.
- most remote
- Bouvet Island sits 1,000 miles from anything else.
- sinking now
- Rising seas may erase entire island nations.
- name origin
- From Old English igland, meaning watery land.
great barrier reef — world's largest coral reef system, 2,300 km long off australia
madagascar — fourth largest island, 587,000 km², home to 90% endemic wildlife species
indonesia — largest island nation, 17,000+ islands spanning 5,000 km across equator
greenland — world's largest island, 2.166 million km², part of denmark