Etymology

icicle

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Today it means: A drooping, tapering shape of ice. Full definition →

Middle English isykle ← Old English *īsġicel ← Proto-West Germanic *īsajikil
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*īsajikil
  2. Old English · inherited from*īsġicel
  3. Middle English · inherited fromisykle
  4. English todayicicle

From Middle English isykle, isikel, from Old English *īsġicel, from Proto-West Germanic *īsajikil, *īsajekul, equivalent to ice + ickle. It was assimilated to nouns in -icle, from Latin -iculus—the expected spelling would have -ickle. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Iesjuukel (“icicle”), German Low German Iesjökel, dialectal Danish jisegel (“icicle”), Norwegian isjukel (“icicle”) and Elfdalian aisikkel.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.