Etymology

graupel

graup·el
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Today it means: A precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water condense on a snowflake. Full definition →

German Graupel(wetter) ← Proto-Slavic *krūpà ← Proto-Indo-European *krewp-
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*krewp-
  2. Proto-Slavic · derived from*krūpà“grainy substance; groats; hail”
  3. German · borrowed fromGraupel(wetter)
  4. English todaygraupel

Borrowed from German Graupel(wetter) (literally “graupel (weather)”). Graupel is a back-formation from graupeln (“to hail (with soft hailstones)”) + -el (diminutive suffix); and graupeln is from Graupe (“hulled grain, pearl barley”) (ultimately from Proto-Slavic *krūpà (“grainy substance; groats; hail”) and Proto-Indo-European *krewp-) + -eln (suffix forming verbs, often with a diminutive or frequentative sense).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.