eeeloan

Yola

FWOTD – 30 January 2024

Alternative forms

eeloan, eelone, iloan, ilone

Etymology

Probably inherited from Middle English ilond, from Old English īeġland, from Proto-West Germanic *auwjuland.

Poole compares it to Irish oileán, but this seems unnecessary. The undiphthongised i-vowel is also found in e.g. eeren (“iron”), neen (“nine”), peepeare (“piper”), and the second syllable is the same as lhoan (“land”), hoane (“hand”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /iːˈlɔːn/

Noun

eeeloan

island

Derived terms

Laady's Ilone

References

Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 37