| 释义 |
cay|keɪ, kiː|
Also key2, q.v.
[ad. Sp. cayo shoal, rock, barrier-reef, OF. cay, caye sand bank or bar, in med.L. caium. Diez cites from the pseudo-Isidore Gl. kai ‘cancellæ’, kaij ‘cancelli’, bars, barriers; and refers it to Celtic cae, pl. caiou ‘munimenta’ in Oxf. glosses. Cf. Welsh cae hedge, Breton kaé embankment. The sense with which it was applied to the reefs, was thus that of ‘bars, barriers’. Orig. the same word as quay, q.v. In 17th c. Eng., key was pronounced kay (keɪ), whence, by assimilation, cay was also written key, spelling now usual in the West Indies.]
A low insular bank of sand, mud, rock, coral, etc.; a sandbank; a range of low-lying reefs or rocks; orig. applied to such islets around the coast and islands of Spanish America.
1707Sloane Jamaica I. Introd. 86 Called by the Spaniards Cayos, whence by corruption comes the English word Keys. 1769Falconer Dict Marine (1789), Caies, a ridge of rocks, or sand-banks; called in the West Indies, keys. 1790Beatson Nav. & Mil. Mem. I. 134 The misfortune to lose the Tyger on a cayo near the island of Tortuga. 1858in Merc. Mar. Mag. V. 159 The Light on Bush Cay [Florida]. 1860Ibid. VII. 71 A beacon..has been erected on this Cay [in Australia]. 1873Act 36 & 37 Vict. c. 6 Preamb., The islands and cays commonly known and designated as the ‘Caicos Islands’. 1884Littell's Living Age 674 The entrance..is protected by cays or coral reefs. |