[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886) › c10.604 # Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.604 Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.604 - **Language:** English ### [c10.604](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.604) \*\*ATOLL\*\*, s. A group of coral islands forming a ring or chaplet, sometimes of many miles in diameter, inclosing a space of comparatively shallow water, each of the islands being on the same type as the \*atoll\*. We derive the expression from the Maldive islands, which are the typical examples of this structure, and where the form of the word is \*atolu\*. \[P. de Laval (Hak. Soc. i. 93) states that the provinces in the Maldives were known as \*Atollon\*. It is probably connected with the Singhalese \*ātul\*, ‘inside’; \[or \*etula\*, as Mr Gray (P. de Laval, Hak. Soc. i. 94) writes the word. The \*Mad. Admin. Man.\* in the \*Glossary\* gives Malayāl. \*attālam\*, ‘a sinking reef’\]. The term was made a scientific one by Darwin in his publication on \*Coral Reefs\* (see below), but our second quotation shows that it had been generalised at an earlier date. - [Previous: c10.603](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.603) - [Next: c10.605](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.605) - [Up: c10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.604](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.604) · Pramāṇa