Episode 10

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Published on:

3rd Feb 2026

Episode 10: insular

The word "island" itself has Germanic, rather than Greco-Roman, roots. But the Latin word insula—which also means "island"—generates several English words, including "insulate" and "insular." After considering some of these English derivatives, we turn to Herman Melville's Moby Dick, a novel that uses the image of an insular landmass to illustrate the very mystery of human existence.

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Music: Adapted from Sonatine by Maurice Ravel, performed by Irene Posviatovska (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

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About the Podcast

Original Public Meaning
Exploring the ancient roots of modern words
Where do our modern English words come from? And what do their long histories tell us about our own ideas and the wider world? On Original Public Meaning, we unearth the ancient foundations of our language and consider how its vast, rich literature—fiction, essays, science, and more—can help us savor our words today.
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Charles McNamara

Director of Greek and Latin Language, University of Minnesota