From: utzoo!watmath!rvpalliende Newsgroups: net.nlang Title: island Article-I.D.: watmath.3036 Posted: Thu Jul 15 15:05:37 1982 Received: Thu Jul 15 20:31:56 1982 Island derives from Old English igland Isle derives from Latin insula. Spelling island with an s became fashionable because some ignorant scholars didn't know the first fact but knew the second one. It was ritzy then, it is stupid now.