On a frigid day in the Northeast, let’s turn our thoughts to the tropics. Wouldn’t you rather be on a nice, warm “isle”? Or perhaps a “cay” or a “key? An “islet”? “Atoll”? Or all of them?
They are all, of course, “islands,” a body of land surrounded by water. But there are some differences.
An “islet” is just a small “island.” Like an “island,” an “islet” needn’t be surrounded by sea. A small group of trees in a meadow is an “islet,” as the eye of a hurricane is an “island” of calm in a tempest.
An “isle” is an “island,” too, but usually on the smaller side, unless you’re the British “Isles.”
Perhaps surprisingly, “island” was first used in English around 880, nearly 400 years before “isle,” the Oxford English Dictionary says. “Island” traces to old Norse and Dutch words, whereas “isle” comes from old French. Through the years, the spelling has varied; in the 15th century, the OED says, the first part of “island” “began to be associated with the synonymous ile, yle (of French origin), and sometimes analytically written ile-land; and when ile was spelt isle, iland erroneously followed it as isle-land, island.” “Island” “became established as the current form before 1700.”
“Cays” and “keys” are the same thing: a small “island” made of sand, coral, or rocks and surrounded by the sea. (In fresh water, you’ve got an “island” or “islet,” not a “key” or “cay.”) A “cay” or “key” is low; if it’s got mountains, it’s not a “key” or “cay.” “Keys” and “cays” are often near larger “islands” or offshore from a mainland.
“Cay” is from the Spanish cayo. The OED says it’s possibly related to the French quai, which is a “quay,” an artificial structure built next to water to allow access to and from boats.
So how did a “cay” become a “key”? The OED says: “In 17th cent. English, key was pronounced kay,” (rhymes with “hay”), “whence, by assimilation, cay was also written key.” “Keys” are found mostly in the Caribbean and near the US; most everyone else uses “cay.”
An “atoll” is the most specific of all these: It is a ring-shaped coral “island” (or “isle” or “islet” or “key” or “cay”) that encloses a lagoon. An “atoll” can be a full ring, or part of it may have collapsed or eroded, making an arc. “Atoll” comes from the language of the Maldive Islands, where there are many “atolls.”
Now that we’re thinking tropical island, how about some “key lime pie”? Associated Press style capitalizes the dessert and its source as “Key lime,” as a reference to the Florida Keys, where the tart fruits were as ubiquitous as the pie. (True “Key limes” are yellow, not green.) Most dictionaries, though, prefer the lower(case) “key.”
Among other names, “key limes” are also known as “West Indies limes” or “bartender’s limes,” as in the lime you might put into the gin and tonic you envision yourself sipping on the beach of a tropical [your preferred term here].
Warmer now?
Merrill Perlman managed copy desks across the newsroom at the New York Times, where she worked for twenty-five years. Follow her on Twitter at @meperl.