insular
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɪnsjələ/
ipa: /ˈɪnsəlɚ/
ipa: /ˈɪnsjəlɚ/
Forms: form: more insular
form: most insular
Etymology: Learned borrowing from Latin īnsulāris (“of or belonging to an island”), from īnsula (“an island”), of uncertain origin.
Senses: examples: text: Near-synonym: islandic
text: At the time of the arrival of the Tonquin he had about forty schooners, of from twenty to thirty tons burthen, and one old American ship. With these he held undisputed sway over his insular domains, and carried on intercourse with the chiefs or governors whom he had placed in command of the several islands.
ref: 1836 October, Washington Irving, chapter VI, in Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: [Henry Charles] Carey, [Isaac] Lea, & Blanchard, →OCLC, page 67:
text: There now is your insular city of the Manhattoes, belted round by wharves as Indian isles by coral reefs—commerce surrounds it with her surf.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Loomings”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 1:
coordinate_terms: peninsular
glosses: Of or being, pertaining to, situated on, or resembling an island or islands.
examples: text: Near-synonym: peninsular
text: During the four years since his puppyhood he had lived the life of a sated aristocrat; he had a fine pride in himself, was even a trifle egotistical, as country gentlemen sometimes become because of their insular situation.
ref: 1903 July, Jack London, “Into the Primitive”, in The Call of the Wild, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, pages 18–19:
text: Making Sense of the Sixties used the typical Americanocentric documentary style that avoided a world or historical context for events […] Other countries were mentioned only insofar as they disturbed the insular course of events in the United States.
ref: 1991 February 4, Owen Shows, “Start Making Sense”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 28, page 16:
glosses: Separate or isolated from the surroundings; having little regard for others opinions or prejudices; provincial.
examples: text: Harriet was fretful and insular. Miss Abbott was pleasant, and insisted on praising everything: her only regret was that she had no pretty clothes with her.
ref: 1905, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, chapter VI, in Where Angels Fear to Tread, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 202:
glosses: Having an inward-looking, standoffish, or withdrawn manner.
topics: anatomy
medicine
sciences
glosses: Relating to the insula in the brain.
topics: biochemistry
biology
chemistry
microbiology
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Relating to insulin.
topics: anthropology
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: (often with a capital letter) Relating to the varieties of a language or languages spoken chiefly on islands. Insular Latin, Latin as it was spoken in Britain and Ireland. Insular Celtic, the Celtic languages of Britain, Ireland and also Brittany, as opposed to those spoken in mainland Europe other than Brittany. Insular Scandinavian, relating to the Icelandic and Faroese languages as opposed to the ones spoken in Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
Derived terms: adipoinsular
circuminsular
enteroinsular
frontoinsular
insular cortex
insular gray fox
insularity
insularization
insularize
insularly
insular Spaniard
insular tameness
interinsular
microinsular
monoinsular
noninsular
operculoinsular
palaeoinsular
parainsular
parietoinsular
periinsular
perinsular
retroinsular
septinsular
subinsular
transinsular
uninsular
Related terms: insularism
insulate
insulation
insulator
isolate
isolation
isolator
peninsula