insula

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɪnsjuːlə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɪnsʊlə/

insula (plural insulas or insulae)

1. (historical) A block of buildings in a Roman town.
2. (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:

     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.

• perinsular

• inulas, uinals

insulo (“island”) +‎ -a

• IPA^(key): [inˈsula]
• Audio:

  (file)

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

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

1. insular

insula (plural insulas)

1. island

• insular

• *isula

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.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈin.su.la/, [ˈĩːs̠ʊɫ̪ä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈin.su.la/, [ˈinsulä]

īnsula f (genitive īnsulae); first declension

1. island
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:
  • Romansch: insla

Reflexes of an assumed 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’s 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, 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
• De Vaan, Michiel (2008) Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 306

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