Anait (/eɪt/, likeeight) oreyot (/aɪ(ə)t,eɪt/) is a small island. The term is especially used to refer toriver islands found on theRiver Thames and its tributaries inEngland.[1][2][3]
Aits are typically formed by the deposit ofsediment in the water, which accumulates. An ait is characteristically long and narrow, and may become a permanent island should it become secured and protected by growing vegetation. However, aits may also be eroded: the resulting sediment is deposited further downstream and could result in another ait. A channel with numerous aits is called abraided channel.[3]
The word derives fromOld Englishiggath (origeth); the root of the word,ieg, meaning island, with a diminutive suffix.[4][1]
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Although not common in 21st-centuryEnglish, "ait" or "eyot" appears inJ. R. R. Tolkien'sThe Lord of the Rings,Charles Dickens'sBleak House,[4] andThackeray'sVanity Fair.[5]
Joyce Cary used "eyot" inThe Horse's Mouth – "Sun was in the bank. Streak of salmon below. Salmon trout above soaking into wash blue. River whirling along so fast that its skin was pulled into wrinkles like silk dragged over the floor. Shot silk. Fresh breeze off the eyot. Sharp as spring frost. Ruffling under the silk-like muscles in a nervous horse. Ruffling under my grief like ice and hot daggers".[citation needed]
More recently, "eyot" was used byTerry Pratchett in the first of theDiscworld books,The Colour of Magic. It also appears inThe Pope's Rhinoceros byLawrence Norfolk.[citation needed]
William Horwood used it in his 1995 novelToad Triumphant.[6]
The dictionary definition ofait at Wiktionary| Large-scale features | |
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| Alluvial rivers | |
| Bedrock river | |
| Bedforms | |
| Regional processes | |
| Mechanics | |
