The word "island" itself has Germanic, rather than Greco-Roman, roots. But the Latin word insula—which also means "island"—generates several English words, including "insulate" and "insular." After considering some of these English derivatives, we turn to Herman Melville's Moby Dick, a novel that uses the image of an insular landmass to illustrate the very mystery of human existence.

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Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

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