Southcote Lodge.
_Island_ (Vol. viii., p. 279.).--H. C. K. is quite right in saying that the
_s_ has been inserted in this word: not, however, as he thinks, "to
assimilate {505} the Saxon and French terms," but from a fancied French or
Latin derivation, just as _rime_ is spelt _rhyme_, because it was fancied
that it came from [Greek: rhuthmos]; and as critics and editors will print
_coelum_ instead of _caelum_, contrary to all authority, because they have
taken it into their heads that it comes from [Greek: koilon]. We have also
_spright_, _impregnable_, and other misspelt words, for which it is
difficult to assign a reason. But I think H. C. K. is altogether mistaken
in connecting the A.-S. _ig_ (pr. _ee_), an island, with _eye_. It is
evidently one of the original underived nouns of the Teutonic family, being
_ig_ A.-S., _ey_ Icel., whence _oe_ Swed., _oe_ or _oee_ Dan., and which also
appears in the German and Dutch _eiland_; while in the words for _eye_ the
_g_ is radical, as _eage_ A.-S., _auga_ Icel., _auge_ Germ., _oog_ Dutch.