Does a log, embedded in the lakebottom and the top sticking over the surface of the water count as an island? How about a large rock sitting in a lake whose top sticks out?
Two friends of mine were arguing over this, which leads to my third question for debate: is this as dumb a thing to argue over as I think it is?
Oddly enough, the matter might be defined, but one would have to be fairly well-versed in Common Law in our own legal tradition to track it down. A great deal of modern US land and property terms and definitions have grown out of the common law, which goes back to umpty-whenever in England and even further back to some flea-picking Germanic tribe or another, depending on who you ask. So, I don’t know the answer, but possibly where you might look.
Well between dictionary.com and merriam webster online, an island is a landmass or large tract of land, smaller than a continent, completly surrounded by water.
Don’t think you can count a rock or a log as a landmass.
An island is any piece of land smaller than a continent and larger than a rock that is completely surrounded by water. Very small islands — say, islands smaller than necessary for most useful purposes — are called islets. (continued at Wikipedia)
I grew up near the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River. I recall a definition being bandied about through most of my youth and early adult life, with what “official status” I have no idea, that what distinguished a rock, shoal, etc., from an island was that an island needed to have at least one tree on it. (We’re assuming an area where trees are endemic for this definition, of course.) In fact there was a small island named Wontry Island – the name, of course, referring to the single tree growing on it.
I’ve heard this as well. The other stipulation usually being that it be above water all year round. However, I can’t see the tree surviving if it’s underwater for part of the year so this part is kinda redundant.