Etymology

Tortola

Tor·to·la
T1O1R1T1O1L1A1

Today it means: An island of the British Virgin Islands, the largest and most populated. Full definition →

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The story

Named after the Dutch island of Tholen with integration of the contracted preposition ter. The toponym was later (incorrectly) reinterpreted as a derivation from Spanish tórtola (“turtle dove”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.