The Etymology of the Name of the Island I？

Sa？etak In this paper we review the early mentions of the name of the island I？ near Zadar in Croatia. We also suggest that the Dalmato-Romance name of the island was [E？dzu], from which the Croatian form I？ can be regularly derived. Furthermore, we suggest that the Dalmato-Romance form was borrowed from the Greek Aígeion (nēsíon) or Aigeíē (ne？sos), a ‘goat-island’. The development of the Greek g to the Dalmato-Romance *dz and the Croatian ？ can be traced to Gr. aigialós ‘beach’ > Croat. ？？l ‘beach’. The semantic motivation for deriving the name of the island from the noun meaning ‘goat’ has parallels in other toponyms on the Adriatic, including the name of the island Kozjak (from Croatian koza ‘goat’). In the Middle Ages, as well as in more recent periods, the inhabitants of the coast used to keep goats on the island of I？, and this custom may have reflected in the name of the island