Type Island

Meaning & History

Created by the Irish author Jonathan Swift for one of the islands in his novel Gulliver's Travels (1726). The novel's hero Gulliver is shipwrecked here, a place inhabited by a society of tiny people. Lilliput, a satirical version of Great Britain, is in conflict with the neighbouring island of Blefuscu, a satirical version of France. Though Swift did not explain the source of the name, he may have based it on English little and the archaic word put meaning "fool, silly man".
Entry added April 25, 2021