• insulate •
Pronunciation: in-sê-layt (US), in-syu-layt (UK) • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: 1. To cover something to prevent heat, cold, electricity from passing through it. 2. To protect from heat, cold, noise, etc. by surrounding it with insulating material. 3. To isolate and protect from something, to place apart, separate.
Notes: Here is a word connoting protection by separation, either protecting what is within, electric cable and heating ducts, or from without like home insulation. It comes with a mass noun, insulation, and a countable noun, insulator. The adjective is insulative.
In Play: The basic sense of this word refers to isolation from something unpleasant: "Evan envied his dog's ability to grow a thicker coat in winter to insulate him better from the cold." This carries over into the figurative use, too. "Robin Banks thought that all his wealth would insulate him from criminal prosecution."
Word History: Today's Good Word is based on Latin insultus "made an island" from insula "island". English also helped itself to the Italian descendant of this word: isolato. Where insula comes from is a question in dispute. Some think it was a loanword, associating it with Old Irish inis "island", Greek nesos "island", and Welsh ynys "island". So the trail ends there. The ancients believed it came from the phrase 'in salo' "in the open sea", based on salum "open sea". This theory runs into a bit of semantic trouble since islands may be in rivers and lakes, too. But if this theory holds, then salum came from sal "salt, brine, the open sea", from PIE sal- "salt", also the source of Sanskrit salila- "salty", Greek hals "salt", Breton holen "salt", Irish salann "salt", Welsh halen "salt", German Salz "salt", English salt, Russian sol' "salt" and sladkii "sweet", Polish sól "salt" and słodki "sweet", Lithuanian saldinti "to sweeten", and Latvian sāls "salt" and saldināt "to sweeten". (Today's surprising Good Word was a gift from Chris Stewart, our long-time South African friend, now retired from the electronics business.)
P.S. - Register for the Daily Good Word E-Mail! - You can get our daily Good Word sent directly to you via e-mail in either HTML or Text format. Go to our Registration Page to sign up today!
