cay
(keɪ, kiː)
Also key2, q.v.
[ad. Sp. cayo shoal, rock, barrier-reef, OF. cay, caye sand bank or bar, in med.L. caium. Diez cites from the pseudo-Isidore Gl. kai ‘cancellæ’, kaij ‘cancelli’, bars, barriers; and refers it to Celtic cae, pl. caiou ‘munimenta’ in Oxf. glosses. Cf. Welsh cae hedge, Breton kaé embankment. The sense with which it was applied to the reefs, was thus that of ‘bars, barriers’. Orig. the same word as quay, q.v. In 17th c. Eng., key was pronounced kay (keɪ), whence, by assimilation, cay was also written key, spelling now usual in the West Indies.]
A low insular bank of sand, mud, rock, coral, etc.; a sandbank; a range of low-lying reefs or rocks; orig. applied to such islets around the coast and islands of Spanish America.
| 1707 Sloane Jamaica I. Introd. 86 Called by the Spaniards Cayos, whence by corruption comes the English word Keys. 1769 Falconer Dict Marine (1789), Caies, a ridge of rocks, or sand-banks; called in the West Indies, keys. 1790 Beatson Nav. & Mil. Mem. I. 134 The misfortune to lose the Tyger on a cayo near the island of Tortuga. 1858 in Merc. Mar. Mag. V. 159 The Light on Bush Cay [Florida]. 1860 Ibid. VII. 71 A beacon..has been erected on this Cay [in Australia]. 1873 Act 36 & 37 Vict. c. 6 Preamb., The islands and cays commonly known and designated as the ‘Caicos Islands’. 1884 Littell's Living Age 674 The entrance..is protected by cays or coral reefs. |