Ait

An ait (/eɪt/, like eight) or eyot (/aɪ(ə)t, eɪt/) is a small island. The term is especially used to refer to river islands found on the River Thames and its tributaries in England.[1][2][3]

Aits are typically formed by the deposit of sediment in the water, which accumulates. An ait is characteristically long and narrow, and may become a permanent island should it become secured and protected by growing vegetation. However, aits may also be eroded: the resulting sediment is deposited further downstream and could result in another ait. A channel with numerous aits is called a braided channel.[3]

## Contents

* 1 Etymology
* 2 References in literature
* 3 See also
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## Etymology

The word derives from Old English iggath (or igeth); the root of the word, ieg, meaning island, with a diminutive suffix.[4][1]

## References in literature

Bush Ait on the River Thames in Berkshire. Growing trees and other plants have secured the material that makes up the ait, protecting it from erosion.

Although not common in 21st-century English, "ait" or "eyot" appears in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Charles Dickens's Bleak House,[4] and Thackeray's Vanity Fair.[5]

Joyce Cary used "eyot" in The Horse's Mouth – "Sun was in the bank. Streak of salmon below. Salmon trout above soaking into wash blue. River whirling along so fast that its skin was pulled into wrinkles like silk dragged over the floor. Shot silk. Fresh breeze off the eyot. Sharp as spring frost. Ruffling under the silk-like muscles in a nervous horse. Ruffling under my grief like ice and hot daggers".[citation needed]

More recently, "eyot" was used by Terry Pratchett in the first of the Discworld books, The Colour of Magic. It also appears in The Pope's Rhinoceros by Lawrence Norfolk.[citation needed]

William Horwood used it in his 1995 novel Toad Triumphant.[6]

## See also

* Earth:Braid bar - Depositional landform in a river which splits a channel
* Earth:Shoal - Natural submerged sandbank that rises from a body of water to near the surface
* Earth:River island - Exposed landmass within a river

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Eyot". 21 June 2003. http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-eyo1.htm.
2. ↑ "Definition of eyot". 20 April 2020. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/eyot.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Misachi, John (5 April 2019). "What is an Ait? Ait Defintion [sic]". https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what-is-an-ait-ait-defintion.html.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Queen's Eyot : History of the island". http://www.queenseyot.co.uk/about/history/.
5. ↑ "Google Ngram Viewer". https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=ait,eyot&year_start=1808&year_end=2008&corpus=4&smoothing=3. (Google Ngram Viewer)
6. ↑ Horwood, William (15 October 1998). Toad Triumphant. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-18304-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=Xg6Rwfbfu28C&q=william horwood toad triumphant "eyot"&pg=PA34. Retrieved 17 February 2024. (Toad Triumphant)

## External links

* v
* t
* e

River morphology

Large-scale features|

* Drainage basin
* Drainage system (geomorphology)
* Estuary
* Strahler number (stream order)
* River valley
* River delta
* River sinuosity

Alluvial rivers|

* Anabranch
* Avulsion (river)
* Bar (river morphology)
* Braided river
* Channel pattern
* Cut bank
* Floodplain
* Meander
* Meander cutoff
* Mouth bar
* Oxbow lake
* Point bar
* Riffle
* Rapids
* Riparian zone
* River bifurcation
* River channel migration
* River mouth
* Slip-off slope
* Stream pool
* Thalweg

Bedrock river|

* Canyon
* Knickpoint
* Plunge pool

Bedforms|

* Ait
* Antidune
* Dune
* Current ripple

Regional processes|

* Aggradation
* Base level
* Degradation (geology)
* Erosion and tectonics
* River rejuvenation

Mechanics|

* Deposition (geology)
* Water erosion
* Exner equation
* Hack's law
* Helicoidal flow
* Playfair's law
* Sediment transport
* List of rivers that have reversed direction

* Category
* Portal

* v
* t
* e

Rivers, streams and springs

Rivers|

* Alluvial river
* Braided river
* Blackwater river
* Channel
* Channel pattern
* Channel types
* Confluence
* Distributary
* Drainage basin
* Subterranean river
* River bifurcation
* River ecosystem
* River source
* Tributary
* more...

Streams|

* Arroyo
* Bourne
* Burn
* Chalk stream
* Coulee
* Current
* Stream
* Stream bed
* Stream channel
* Stream gradient
* Stream pool
* Perennial stream
* Winterbourne
* more...

Springs|

* Geyser
* Sacred spring
* Hot spring
* Karst spring
* Mineral spring
* Rhythmic spring
* Spring
* Spring horizon
* more...

Sedimentary processes
and erosion|

* Abrasion
* Anabranch
* Aggradation
* Armor
* Bed load
* Bed material load
* Granular flow
* Debris flow
* Deposition
* Dissolved load
* Downcutting
* Erosion
* Headward erosion
* Knickpoint
* Palaeochannel
* Progradation
* Retrogradation
* Saltation
* Secondary flow
* Sediment transport
* Suspended load
* Wash load
* Water gap

Fluvial landforms|

* Ait
* Alluvial fan
* Antecedent drainage stream
* Avulsion
* Bank
* Bar
* Bayou
* Billabong
* Canyon
* Chine
* Cut bank
* Estuary
* Fluvial terrace
* Gill
* Gulch
* Gully
* Glen
* Meander scar
* Mouth bar
* Oxbow lake
* Riffle-pool sequence
* Point bar
* Ravine
* Rill
* River island
* Rock-cut basin
* Sedimentary basin
* Sedimentary structures
* Strath
* Thalweg
* River valley
* Wadi

Fluvial flow|

* Helicoidal flow
* International Scale of River Difficulty
* Meander
* Plunge pool
* Rapids
* Riffle
* Shoal
* Waterfall
* Whitewater

Surface runoff|

* Agricultural wastewater treatment
* Effluent
* First flush
* Urban runoff
* Wastewater

Floods and stormwater|

* 100-year flood
* Crevasse splay
* Flash flood
* Flood
* Flood barrier
* Flood control
* Flood forecasting
* Flood-meadow
* Floodplain
* Flood pulse concept
* Flooded grasslands and savannas
* Storm Water Management Model
* Return period

River measurement
and modelling|

* Baer's law
* Baseflow
* Bradshaw model
* Discharge (hydrology)
* Drainage density
* Exner equation
* Groundwater model
* Hack's law
* Hjulström curve
* Hydrograph
* Hydrological modelling
* Hydrological transport model
* Infiltration (hydrology)
* Main stem
* Playfair's Law
* Relief ratio
* River continuum concept
* Rouse number
* Runoff curve number
* Runoff model (reservoir)
* Stream gauge
* Universal Soil Loss Equation
* WAFLEX
* Wetted perimeter
* Volumetric flow rate

River engineering|

* Aqueduct
* Balancing lake
* Canal
* Check dam
* Dam
* Drop structure
* Daylighting
* Detention basin
* Erosion control
* Fish ladder
* Floodplain restoration
* Flume
* Infiltration basin
* Leat
* Levee
* Retention basin
* Revetment
* Riparian zone restoration
* Stream restoration
* Weir

River sports|

* Canyoning
* Rafting
* River surfing
* Riverboarding
* Whitewater canoeing
* Whitewater kayaking
* Whitewater slalom

Other topics|

* Aquifer
* Aquatic toxicology
* Body of water
* Limnology
* Riparian zone
* River civilization
* River cruise
* Surface water
* World Rivers Day

Lists of rivers
Rivers by continent
Rivers by length
Rivers by discharge rate
Drainage basins
Whitewater rivers
Flash floods
River name etymologies

an:Mechana mk:Средорек ru:Владимирская область

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ait. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Earth:Ait&oldid=3999654"
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template