Why is the 's' in Island mute in English?

 The “s” in island is mute because of a spelling mistake in history:

  • The word comes from Old English ī(e)gland (literally “water-land,” īeg = island, land = land). There was no “s” in it.

  • In the Middle Ages, scholars tried to connect it (wrongly) with the Latin word insula (island). To make it look more “learned,” they inserted an s into the spelling.

  • The pronunciation, however, stayed the same — without the s.


So the “s” is there only because of etymological confusion, not because it was ever pronounced.

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