Etymology

ice

I1C3E1

Today it means: Water in frozen (solid) form. Full definition →

Middle English is ← Old English īs ← Proto-West Germanic *īs
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁eyH-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*h₁eyH-so-
  3. Proto-Germanic*īsą
  4. Proto-West Germanic*īs
  5. Old Englishīs
  6. Middle Englishis
  7. English todayice

From Middle English hyse, hyys, ice, ijs, is, yce, ys, yys, from Old English īs, from Proto-West Germanic *īs, from Proto-Germanic *īsą (“ice”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyH- (“ice, frost”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian Iis, is (“ice”), Saterland Frisian Ies (“ice”), West Frisian iis (“ice”), Alemannic German Iis, isch, éisch (“ice”), Bavarian, Cimbrian, and Mòcheno ais (“ice”), Dutch ijs (“ice”), German Eis (“ice”), German Low German Ies (“ice”), Luxembourgish Äis (“ice”), Vilamovian ajs (“ice”), Yiddish אײַז (ayz, “ice”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish is (“ice”), Elfdalian ais (“ice”), Faroese ísur (“ice”), Icelandic ís (“ice”); also Cornish yey (“ice”), yeyn (“cold”), Irish oighear (“ice”), Scottish Gaelic deigh, eigh, eighre (“ice”), Welsh iâ (“ice”), Lithuanian ýnis (“hoar frost”), Bulgarian and Russian и́ней (ínej, “hoar frost”), Czech jíní (“frost”), Macedonian and Serbo-Croatian и́ње (“hoar frost”), Ukrainian і́ній (ínij, “hoar frost, rime”), Ossetian их (ix, “ice”), Armenian եղյամ (eġyam, “frost, hoar frost, rime”), Persian یخ (yax, “ice”), Hittite 𒂊𒃷 (“ice”). Superseded non-native Middle English glace (“ice”), borrowed from Old French glace (“ice”).

Words from the same roots

Old Englishīs all →

is

Proto-Indo-European*h₁eyH- all →

eckle

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.