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Is the isle of white actually white?

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Is the isle of white actually white?

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The correct spelling is 'Wight' rather than 'White', but why this word with its unique spelling was adopted after the Romans left is not entirely agreed on by the experts. All do agree that it was nothing to do with the colour of the white cliffs. The most popular theory seems to be that the original meaning of the word 'wight' was to 'split or divide' and related to the Island dividing the waters off Portsmouth and Southampton.

The only thing that can be said with any degree of certainty is that the Island is not spelled Isle of White! Source(s): http://www.iwight.com/living_here/isle_o...

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actually mate the spelling wight means people so its isle of people and there was not a great roman presence on the island

The Isle of Wight is an English island, south of Southampton off the southern English coast. It is part of the UK.

Popularized from Victorian times as a holiday resort, it is known for its natural beauty and as home to the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes, a town that hosts a world famous annual regatta. Colloquially, it is known as "The Island" by its residents. It possesses a rich history including its own brief status as a vassal kingdom in the fifteenth century, home to poet Alfred Lord Tennyson and Queen Victoria's much loved summer residence and final home Osborne House. Its maritime history encompasses boat building and sail making through to the manufacture of flying boats and the world's first hovercraft. It is home to the Isle of Wight Festival which in 1970 was one of the largest rock music events ever held with estimates reaching 600,000 attendees, overtaking the record set at Woodstock a year earlier. The island is also one of the richest fossil locations for dinosaurs in Europe. In 686AD, it became the last part of Great Britain to convert to Christianity - almost a century after the mainland.
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