Dictionary

desert island en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (General-American) audio
• (General-American) audio
• /dɪˈzɝt.aɪlənd/ (General-American)
• /ˈdɛz.ɚt.aɪlənd/ (General-American)

Etymology

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.

Meanings

1. A deserted island, an uninhabited island, especially one in the tropics and (now frequently misunderstood as) a small and almost entirely sandy desert.
   • My first crew ran away; two men were lost for a month on a desert island; we were ten times aground on coral reefs; we lost four anchors; the sails were devoured by rats; the small boat was lost astern; we were thirty-eight days on the voyage home, which should not have taken twelve [...] we had not one single day of fair wind. 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 384:
   • Desert islands cannot harbour treachery, even from the enemy hidden within man himself. 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 38:
   • What would I take with me to a desert island?
2. 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?
3. (attributive, figuratively) Describing a thing considered so personally indispensable or beloved that one could never tire of it, used especially for books and music.
   • My desert-island, all-time, top five most memorable split-ups, in chronological order:[…] 1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 9:
   • 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 […] 2017, Alan Rifkin, Burdens by Water: An Unintended Memoir:
   • A roast dinner would be my desert island meal and I'd missed Dad's divine crispy King Edwards each Sunday. 2021, E. K. J. Wright, How Do You Stop a Magpie Mobbing Your Mind?:
   • 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.

Forms

Synonyms

top five · favorite

Translations (27)

de unbewohnte Insel (an uninhabited island) · xal эҗго арл (an uninhabited island) · cmn 無人島 /无人岛 (an uninhabited island) · is eyðiey (an uninhabited island) · el ερημόνησο (an uninhabited island) · ca illa deserta (an uninhabited island) · fr île déserte (an uninhabited island) · nl onbewoond eiland (an uninhabited island) · es isla desierta (an uninhabited island) · it isola deserta (an uninhabited island) · pl bezludna wyspa (an uninhabited island) · cmn 无人岛 (an uninhabited island) · tr ıssız ada (an uninhabited island) · cmn 荒岛 (an uninhabited island) · fr île inhabitée (an uninhabited island) · hu lakatlan sziget (an uninhabited island) · el ερημονήσι (an uninhabited island) · ru необита́емый о́стров (an uninhabited island) · he אִי בּוֹדֵד (an uninhabited island) · eo neloĝata insulo (an uninhabited island) · la isla deserta (an uninhabited island) · pt ilha deserta (an uninhabited island) · is eyðieyja (an uninhabited island) · fi autiosaari (an uninhabited island) · cy ynys anghyfannedd (an uninhabited island) · ja 無人島 (an uninhabited island) · la insula deserta (an uninhabited island)

wikipedia: Age of Exploration · wikipedia: Desert Island Discs