Friday 8 August 2014
An island is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. The word island comes from Middle English iland, from Old English igland (from ig, similarly meaning 'island' when used independently, and -land carrying its contemporary meaning; cf. Dutch eiland, German Eiland. However, the spelling of the word was modified in the 15th century due to an incorrect association with the etymologically unrelated Old French. Source
