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Glite Dictionary
Orkney Islands

Orkney Islands

1 5.8
A group of islands off Scotland's northeast coast with old stone sites and a wild coastline
  • proper noun
: Islas Orcadas
  • The Orkney Islands are known for their stunning landscapes and rich archaeological history.

Examples

  • Wildlife enthusiasts flock to the Orkney Islands to observe unique bird species and marine life.

  • For reasons that aren't very clear, the Orkney Islands just north of Scotland were the happening place to be 5,000 years ago.

    Blog text (32)

  • He drove to the docks and found that a ferry was scheduled to leave for the Orkney Islands the next day at noon.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Many tourists visit the Orkney Islands each summer to explore ancient ruins and enjoy the scenery.

Surface Forms

Orkney Islands main

Morphology

Orkney + island

The meaning is compositionally transparent: 'islands' clearly denotes pieces of land surrounded by water and the preceding proper name 'Orkney' identifies which islands. The toponymic pattern 'X Islands' is a common, cross-linguistic construction, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would infer it denotes a group of islands at or near Orkney.

Etymology

Orkney Islands comes from an old Norse word Orkneyjar that meant 'seal islands' because the shores had many seals resting on the rocks. So, the name that once meant 'seal islands' became the name for this group of islands off Scotland.