| 释义 |
▪ I. ait1|eɪt|
Forms: (1 íᵹᵹað, íᵹeoð), 2 eyt, 3 æit, eit, 7–8 eyt, eyet, eyght, 8 aight, ayte, 7– ait, 9 eyot.
[OE. íᵹᵹað, íᵹeoð was perh. a dim. of íeᵹ, íᵹ, island (though the ordinary power of -að was to make abstr. nouns, as in huntað hunting). The subsequent phonetic history is obscure: the normal descendant of íᵹᵹað would be ieth (cf. flieth); the vowel of ME. eyt might arise from an OE. variant éᵹað, as in éᵹ isle for íᵹ (cf. also ON. eið ‘peninsula,’ in Shetland eid ‘a tongue of land’); but the t is unexplained; the later -et, and mod. -ot, are artificial spellings after islet (MFr. islette) and mod.Fr. îlot.]
An islet or small isle; especially one in a river, as the aits or eyots of the Thames.
894O.E. Chron., Hie fluᵹon ofer Temese buton ælcum forda þa up be Colne on anne iᵹᵹað. c1000ælfric Hom. (Sweet 77) Þa asende hé hine..to ánum iᵹeoðe þe is Paðmas ᵹeciᵹed. 1052–67Charter of Eadweard in Cod. Dipl. IV. 211 On máden and on eyten, on waterin and on weren. 1205Layamon 23872 Ferde to þan æite mid aðele his wepnen [1250 He wende to þan yllond]. 1649R. Hodges Plainest Direc. 2 The Ait where the Osiers grew. 1677Coles, An Eyet, Eyght. Insula minima in fluento. 1725De Foe, etc. Tour Gt. Brit. II. 70 Not far from Maidenhead Bridge, is a small Aight or Islet in the River. 1772Barrington in Phil. Trans. LXII. 289 A man near Brentford says, that he hath caught them [swallows] in this state in the eyt opposite to that town. 1835T. Hook G. Gurney (1850) I. iv. 61 The ayte opposite Mrs. Forty's excellent inn. 1851Sir. F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. I. 321 Not presqu'isles, but completely eyots and islands. 1864R. F. Burton Dahome 33 A semi-stagnant stream, dotted with little green aits. 1880Times, Thames Conservancy: All Steam tugs are to be placed outside Chiswick Ait.
Comb. ait-land, obs., an island.
1205Layamon 1117 Logice hatte þat eitlond [1250 yllond] Ibid. 21750 Sixti æit-londes? beoð i þan watere longe.
▪ II. ait2, aitt Sc. and north. dial.
= oat.
1513–75Diurn. Occurrents (1833) 181 Aittis and peis growand thair about. 1570Wills & Inv. N. Counties (1835) I. 344 Fywe bollis quheit & fywe bollis beir & aitts. 1786Burns Wks. III. 13 An' Aits set up their awnie horn. |