insula

See also: Insula, insulă, and ínsula

English

Insula in Ostia

Etymology

From Latin insula (“island”). Doublet of isle.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɪnsjuːlə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɪnsulə/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧su‧la

Noun

insula (plural insulas or insulae)

2. (historical) A block of buildings in a Roman town.
4. (neuroanatomy) A structure of the human brain located within the lateral sulcus.

   Synonyms: insular cortex, island of Reil

   • 2007 February 6, Sandra Blakeslee, “A Small Part of the Brain, and Its Profound Effects”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     All mammals have insulas that read their body condition, Dr. Craig said.

   • 2011, Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, Penguin, published 2012, page 608:

     The insula registers our physical gut feelings, including the sensation of a distended stomach and other inner states like nausea, warmth, a full bladder, and a pounding heart.

Derived terms

• insulostriatal
• perinsular

Related terms

• insular
• insulate
• insulation
• isolate
• isolation
• peninsula

Translations

a block of buildings in a Roman town

• Finnish: insula (fi), roomalainen vuokrakasarmi
• French: please add this translation if you can
• Marathi: इनसुला (insulā)
• Portuguese: ínsula (pt) f
• Spanish: insula (es)

a structure of the human brain located within the lateral sulcus

• Finnish: aivosaari, insula (fi)
• French: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: ínsula (pt) f

Anagrams

• inulas, uinals

Esperanto

Etymology

insulo (“island”) +‎ -a

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /inˈsula/

• Audio 1:

  (file)

• Audio 2:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ula
• Syllabification: in‧su‧la

Adjective

insula (accusative singular insulan, plural insulaj, accusative plural insulajn)

1. insular

Interlingua

Noun

insula (plural insulas)

1. island

Related terms

• insular

Latin

īnsula in marī Adriāticō (an island in the Adriatic Sea)

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *enselā, of uncertain origin. The relation to similar forms such as Ancient Greek νῆσος (nêsos, “island”) and Proto-Celtic *enistī (“island”) (whence Breton enez, Irish inis and Welsh ynys) is unclear.

Pokorny (1959) tentatively connects it to salum (“the sea”): he posits ellipsis from terra in salō (“land in the sea”) to in (“in”) + salō, invoking the similar Ancient Greek word ἔναλος (énalos, “maritime”). De Vaan considers this derivation phonetically solid, though semantically vague and unlikely. For an alternative he offers a connection of *-sul- to Proto-Indo-European *solh₂- (“place, ground”) as in solum; compare Lithuanian salà (“island”). Perhaps instead of foreign or substrate origin.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈĩː.sʊ.ɫa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈin.su.la]

Noun

īnsula f (genitive īnsulae); first declension

1. island
   • 1772, Finnur Jónsson, chapter 1, in Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiæ [The Ecclesiastical History of Iceland]‎^[2], volume 1, Copenhagen: Orphanotrophius Regii, section 1, page 1:

     Islandia eſt inſula valde montoſa pariter ac ſinuoſa, in mari Caledonio ſita ſub gradu latitud: 64. 55.

     [Īslandia est īnsula montōsa pariter ac sinuōsa, in marī Calēdoniō sita sub gradū *latitud: 64. 55.]

     Iceland is a both mountainous and likewise rugged island, situated in the Caledonian Sea at a latitude of 64 degrees 55 minutes.

     ("latitud" is an invention by the author; lātitūdo would be the more normal term)

2. insula, a residential or apartment block (usually for the lower class), tenement, apartment building

Declension

First-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	īnsula	īnsulae
genitive	īnsulae	īnsulārum
dative	īnsulae	īnsulīs
accusative	īnsulam	īnsulās
ablative	īnsulā	īnsulīs
vocative	īnsula	īnsulae

Derived terms

• Īnsula
• īnsulānus
• īnsulāris
• īnsulārius
• īnsulēnsis
• īnsulō
• īnsulōsus
• paenīnsula

Descendants

• Old Galician-Portuguese: inssoa, insoa, insua
  • Galician: insua
  • Portuguese: ínsua
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Romansch: insla

Reflexes of an assumed Vulgar Latin variant *īsula (with regular loss of n before s):

• Corsican: isula
• Emilian: îsla
• Franco-Provençal: ila
• Italian: isola
• Lombard: isla
• Old Navarro-Aragonese:
  • Aragonese: isla
• Old French: isle
  • Middle French: isle, île
    • French: île (see there for further descendants)
  • Norman: île
  • Walloon: iye
  • → Middle English: yle, ile
    • English: isle
• Neapolitan: isule
• Old Catalan: illa
  • Catalan: illa
  • → Old Galician-Portuguese: illa, ilha
    • Galician: illa
    • Portuguese: ilha (see there for further descendants)
    • → Leonese: illa
    • → Mirandese: ilha
• Old Occitan: illa, ilha, isla
  • Occitan: iscla, illa
• Old Spanish: isla
  • Ladino: ísla, ízla
  • Spanish: isla (see there for further descendants)
  • → Asturian: islla, isla
  • → Extremaduran: isla
  • → Old Galician-Portuguese: ysla, yslla, yslha
• Piedmontese: isla
• Rhaeto-Romance:
  • Friulian: isule, ìsule
• Sardinian: isula
• Sicilian: ìsula
• Venetan: ixoła, ixola
• → Albanian: ishull

Borrowings:

• → English: insula (learned)
• → Proto-West Germanic: *insulā (see there for further descendants)
• → Portuguese: ínsula
• → Romanian: insulă
• → Spanish: ínsula

Further reading

• “insula”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “insula”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "insula", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “insula”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[3], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to double an island, cape: superare insulam, promunturium
    
• “insula”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “insula”, in Samuel Ball Platner (1929), Thomas Ashby, editor, A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome, London: Oxford University Press
• “insula”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
• “insula”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Portuguese

Verb

insula

1. inflection of insular:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈinsula]

Noun

insula f

1. definite nominative singular of insulă: the island
2. definite accusative singular of insulă: the island

Tagalog

Etymology

Back-formation from insulasyon, from English insulation. Also, a pseudo-Hispanism thinking a verb Spanish insular (“insular; relating to islands”) exists to mean “to insulate”. However, the proper Spanish term for “to insulate” is Spanish aislar. See aysla. Alternatively, possibly borrowed from Spanish ínsula (“island”), from Latin īnsula, but the word is obsolete in Spanish. Possible doublet of isla.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ʔinsuˈla/ [ʔɪn̪.sʊˈla]
• Rhymes: -a
• Syllabification: in‧su‧la

Noun

insulá (Baybayin spelling ᜁᜈ᜔ᜐᜓᜎ)

1. act of insulation

   Synonyms: bukod, hiwalay, aysla

Derived terms

• insulahin
• mag-insula
• pang-insula

Related terms

• aysla
• ayslado
• ayslador
• ayslamyento
• insulado
• insulador
• insular
• insulares
• insulasyon
• isla
• peninsula
• peninsulares