insula

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

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

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: in‧su‧la

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.

• inulas, uinals

insulo (“island”) +‎ -a

• IPA^(key): /inˈsula/

• Audio 1:

  (file)

• Audio 2:

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

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

1. insular

insula (plural insulas)

1. island

• insular

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.^[1]

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

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

First-declension noun.

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

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

Borrowings:

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

• “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

insula

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

• IPA^(key): [ˈinsula]

insula f

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

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.

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

insulá (Baybayin spelling ᜁᜈ᜔ᜐᜓᜎ)

1. act of insulation

   Synonyms: bukod, hiwalay, aysla