Laputa:
The word, which I interpret
the Flying or Floating Island, is in the original Laputa, whereof I could never
learn the true etymology. Lap in the old obsolete language signifies high, and
untuh, a governor, from which they say by corruption was derived Laputa, from
Lapuntuh. But I do not approve of this derivation, which seems to be a little
strained. I ventured to offer to the learned among them a conjecture of my own,
that Laputa was quasi lap outed; lap signifying properly the dancing of the sunbeams
in the sea, and outed, a wing, which however I shall not obtrude, but submit to
the judicious reader.