ISLAND, noun i'land. [This is an absurd compound of isle and land, that is, land-in-water land, or ieland-land. There is no such legitimate word in English, and it is found only in books. The genuine word always used in discourse is our native word, Sax.ealong, D.G. eiland.] 1. A tract of land surrounded by water. 2. A large mass of floating ice, is called an island of ice.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI