LATIN DICTIONARYLexicon Latīnum
noun · femininefirst declension

īnsula1

īnsula f (genitive īnsulae)
Classical[ˈĩː.sʊ.ɫa]Ecclesiastical[ˈin.su.la]
№ 908 of the 1,000 commonest wordsMille Verba core vocabulary

Meaning

  1. island
    Islandia eſt inſula valde montoſa pariter ac ſinuoſa, in mari Caledonio ſita ſub gradu latitud: 64. 55.Iceland is a both mountainous and likewise rugged island, situated in the Caledonian Sea at a latitude of 64 degrees 55 minutes.1772, Finnur Jónsson, chapter 1, in Historia Ecclesiastica Islandiæ [The Ecclesiastical History of Iceland], volume 1, Copenhagen: Orphanotrophius Regii, section 1, page 1:
  2. insula, a residential or apartment block (usually for the lower class), tenement, apartment building

Latīnē defined in Latin in our graded readers

terra quam mare undique cingit.
īnsula -ae f — in Mille Verba, Mare et Nāvēs

Declension

declension
formsingularplural
nominativeīnsulaīnsulae
genitiveīnsulaeīnsulārum
dativeīnsulaeīnsulīs
accusativeīnsulamīnsulās
ablativeīnsulāīnsulīs
vocativeīnsulaīnsulae

Phrases from Meissner's Latin Phrase-Book

superare insulam, promunturium
to double an island, cape.

insŭla, ae, f. in-sul; cf. con-sul, prop. in-land.
I. An island, isle, whether formed by the sea, a lake, or a river: insulam Britanniam, Cic. Fam. 15, 16, 2; id. de Imp. Pomp. 11 fin.; Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 64, § 144; Verg. A. 1, 159; 3, 211: in lacu, Cic. Mil. 27, 74: Rheni amnis, Tac. G. 29; Ov. F. 1, 292: in medio flumine nata, Gai. Inst. 2, 72 al.—
B. Transf.: apud fustitudinas ferricrepinas insulas, i. e. the mills in which, as a punishment, slaves were forced to grind, Plaut. As. 1, 1, 18.—
II. A house for poor people, which was let out in portions to several families; opp. domus, which was the mansion of a rich family, Cic. Off. 3, 16, 66: intellego Clodii insulam esse venalem, id. Cael. 7, 17; Tac. A. 6, 45; 15, 43; Suet. Tib. 48; id. Caes. 41; Mart. 4, 37, 4 al.; sometimes also of a single lodging in such a house, Suet. Ner. 38; cf. Preller, Regionen der Stadt Rom, p. 86 sq.; Becker, Gallus, 2, p. 146 sq. 2d edit.—
III. A temple (eccl.); cf. Is. Voss. ad Just. 32, 2, 2.

Origins

The relation to similar forms such as Ancient Greek νῆσος (nêsos, “island”) and Proto-Celtic *enistī (“island”) (whence Breton enez, Irish inis and Welsh ynys) is unclear. Pokorny (1959) tentatively connects it to salum (“the sea”): he posits ellipsis from terra in salō (“land in the sea”) to in (“in”) + salō, invoking the similar Ancient Greek word ἔναλος (énalos, “maritime”). De Vaan considers this derivation phonetically solid, though semantically vague and unlikely. For an alternative he offers a connection of *-sul- to Proto-Indo-European *solh₂- (“place, ground”) as in solum; compare Lithuanian salà (“island”). Perhaps instead of foreign or substrate origin.

Elsewhere
  • Portugueseínsuafrom Old Galician-Portuguese inssoa
  • Italianisola
  • Frenchîlefrom Old French isle
  • Englishislefrom Old French isle
  • Catalanillafrom Old Catalan illa
  • Portugueseilhafrom Old Catalan illa
  • Occitanisclafrom Old Occitan illa
  • Occitanillafrom Old Occitan illa
  • Spanishislafrom Old Spanish isla
  • Sardinianisula
Rhaeto-Romance
  • Romanshinsla
  • Friulianisule
  • Friulianìsule
Old Navarro-Aragonese
  • Aragoneseisla
proper noun · femininefirst declension
Īnsula2
Īnsula f sg (genitive Īnsulae)

Meaning

  1. A district in Rome encircled by the Tiber River
  2. Lille, a city in France, the capital of Nord-Pas-de-Calais

Declension

declension
formsingularplural
nominativeĪnsula—
genitiveĪnsulae—
dativeĪnsulae—
accusativeĪnsulam—
ablativeĪnsulā—
vocativeĪnsula—
locativeĪnsulae—

Insŭla, ae, f.,
I. nom. prop., a part of Syracuse cut off from the rest by a narrow arm of the sea, which was bridged, Liv. 24, 21, 6; Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 52, § 117.

Origins

From īnsula (“island”)

In the Academy Smith's classical dictionaries

GeographyInsulaInsula or FNSULA ALLOBROGUM, in Gallia Narbonensis. Livy (21.31), after describing Hannibal's passage of the Rhone, says that he directed his march on…

Quick answers

What does īnsula mean in Latin?
īnsula, a noun, means “island; insula, a residential or apartment block (usually for the lower class), tenement, apartment building”.
What is the genitive of īnsula?
The genitive singular is īnsulae. īnsula is feminine, first declension.
How do you pronounce īnsula?
In classical Latin, [ˈĩː.sʊ.ɫa]; in ecclesiastical (church) Latin, [ˈin.su.la].