tisle

Tisle is an archaic or dialectal variant of the English noun isle, meaning a landmass surrounded by water. It appears in some older texts as an alternate spelling of the more common isle, though it did not become standard in modern English usage.

Etymology and attestation: The word shares its lineage with isle, itself descended from Old French isle (ile) and ultimately from Latin insula. In medieval and early modern manuscripts, scribal variation sometimes produced spellings such as tisle, reflecting the broader fluidity of English orthography before standardization.

Usage and historical context: Tisle is largely confined to historical or literary contexts. It is encountered primarily in poetry or glossaries and is rarely found in contemporary prose. Modern dictionaries typically classify tisle as archaic or dialectal, acknowledging that the form is of primarily historical interest rather than current usage.

Geography and contemporary relevance: There are no widely recognized geographic features or modern place names known as tisle. The term serves mainly as a linguistic note illustrating spelling variation in the history of English rather than as a distinct geographic identifier.

See also: Isle, Island, Islet, Old English and Middle English orthography.