aisle

• isle (obsolete)

From Middle English ele, from Middle French aisle (“wing”) (Modern French aile), from Latin āla.

• (UK, US) enPR: īl, IPA^(key): /aɪ̯l/

• audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪl
• Homophones: I'll, isle

aisle (plural aisles)

1. A wing of a building, notably in a church separated from the nave proper by piers.
   • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, in The Dust of Conflict‎:

     Hester Earle and Violet Wayne were moving about the aisle with bundles of wheat-ears and streamers of ivy, for the harvest thanksgiving was shortly to be celebrated, while the vicar stood waiting for their directions on the chancel steps with a great handful of crimson gladioli.

   • 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 13, in Crime out of Mind‎:

     In one of the aisles there was an elaborately carved confessional box and I recognised the village priest in his heavy mountain boots and black cassock as he entered it and drew the dark velvet curtains behind him.

2. A clear path through rows of seating.
3. A clear corridor in a supermarket with shelves on both sides containing goods for sale.
4. Any path through an otherwise obstructed space.
   • 1944 November and December, “"Duplex Roomette" Sleeping Cars”, in Railway Magazine, page 324:

     It is realised that the old Pullman standard sleeper, with its convertible "sections", each containing upper and lower berths, and with no greater privacy at night than the curtains drawn along both sides of a middle aisle, has had its day.

5. (transport) Seat in public transport, such as a plane, train or bus, that's beside the aisle.

   Do you want to seat window or aisle?

6. (US, politics) An idiomatic divide between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, who are said to be on two sides of the aisle.
7. The path of a wedding procession in a church or other venue; (by extension, metonymically) marriage.
   • 1957, The Five Satins (lyrics and music), “To the Aisle”:

     You ask her if she loves you, she answers, "I do" / Your heart starts glowing inside / And then you will know she is just for you / While each step, draws you closer to the aisle

• (obsolete spelling): isle
• (seat beside an aisle): aisle seat

• (antonym(s) of “seat on the aisle side”): window, window seat

• Alesi, ELISA, Elias, eLISA, saile, slaie

aisle f (plural aisles)

1. Obsolete form of aile.

aisle f (genitive singular aisle, nominative plural aislí)

1. Alternative form of aisling (“vision; vision poem”)

aisle f

1. inflection of aisil (“part, piece, joint”):
   1. genitive singular
   2. plural

aisle f

1. inflection of aiseal (“axle”):
   1. genitive singular
   2. plural

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “aisle”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

• aesle, æsle

From Old French aile, from Latin ala with the addition of an unetymological s.

aisle f (plural aisles)

1. wing (anatomical structure of flying animals)

• English: aisle
• French: aile