desert island
nounEtymology
From the former sense of desert to mean deserted (“uninhabited”), particularly common on Spanish and Portuguese maps during the Age of Exploration as isla desierta, ilha deserta, and Medieval Latin isla deserta (“uninhabited island”). Now frequently misunderstood as simply desert (“dry, arid location”) and imagined as almost entirely sandy. As an indispensable thing, from the idea of loving something to the point one would want it on a deserted island where it would be used ad infinitum but never ad nauseam. Popularized by the radio show Desert Island Discs (first broadcast 1942) which asked guests what they would take with them if marooned alone on an island.
- derived from isla deserta
Definitions
A deserted island, an uninhabited island, especially one in the tropics and (now…
A deserted island, an uninhabited island, especially one in the tropics and (now frequently misunderstood as) a small and almost entirely sandy desert.
- What would I take with me to a desert island?
- Desert islands cannot harbour treachery, even from the enemy hidden within man himself.
An island that is completely or mostly a desert, an arid island.
- Why are you marooning me on a desert island? It's probably full of guano. Can't I go somewhere nice?
Describing a thing considered so personally indispensable or beloved that one could never…
Describing a thing considered so personally indispensable or beloved that one could never tire of it, used especially for books and music.
- No, no, no. It's a thought experiment. Your desert island books are the one or five or ten books that you could always learn from and never get sick of.
- My desert-island, all-time, top five most memorable split-ups, in chronological order:[…]
- It would be my desert island book, this Love Life for Every Married Couple; marriage being to me the most obvious path to the hardest lesson we've all got to learn […]
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for desert island. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA