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    What makes an island an island and an isle an isle, is it the size?

    Question #120188. Asked by 29CoveRoad. (Feb 02 11 1:57 AM)


    looney_tunes

    		No, it's just customary usage. Some consider isle to be a poetic term, and prose a prosaic one, but whatever the origins the terms can be used interchangeably if a newly-discovered piece of land surrounded by water is being named. (There is a word for a small island - islet.)

    http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=150746

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island

    Feb 02 11, 4:25 AM
    author

    		This is one of the few words which have a more accurate meaning in Scandinavian than in English. The word is "holme", which is an "islet", but - unlike the english word - there is a precise definition of "holme".

    Quote:
    Holm or Holmen is a common suffix too in Nordic and northern European countries ("holme" means "islet" in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although the meaning is more precise: a holme in Swedish is usually big enough for having wood and some fresh water but too small for a village; smaller islets have other names.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islet

    The Scandinavian word derives from German "Holm". This German Wiki page claims that in the Faroe Islands an "island" is more than 0.7 square km, while an "islet" is smaller than that.

    http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiland

    Feb 02 11, 4:55 PM



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