Etymology

ickle

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Today it means: An icicle. Full definition →

First used mid-19th c.Middle English ikil ← Old English *ġicol ← Proto-West Germanic *jekul
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ickle · noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*h₁yeg-
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*jekulaz“piece of ice”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*jekul
  4. Old English · inherited from*ġicol
  5. Middle English · inherited fromikil
  6. English todayickle

From Middle English ikil, ykle, from Old English *ġicol, ġiċel (“icicle, ice”), from Proto-West Germanic *jekul, *jikil, from Proto-Germanic *jekulaz (“piece of ice”), diminutive of *jekô (“lump of ice”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁yeg-. Cognate with Low German Jäkel (“icicle”), Danish egel (“icicle”), Norwegian Bokmål jøkel (“glacier, icesheet”), Norwegian Nynorsk jøkul, jøkle (“glacier, icicle”), Faroese jøkul (“glacier”), Icelandic jökull (“glacier”), Swedish jökel (“glacier”) and probably Albanian akull (“ice”) (Gheg okull). Doublet of jokul.

ickle · adjective2

Childish pronunciation of little.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishikil all →

eckle

Proto-Germanic*jekulaz all →

eckle

First known use, by meaning

  • from mid-19th c. Little.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.