Etymology

permafrost

P3E1R1M3A1F4R1O1S1T1

Today it means: Permanently frozen ground, or a specific layer thereof. Full definition →

English frost ← Middle English frost ← Old English frost
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*per-
  2. Proto-Italic*peri-
  3. Latinper-
  4. Proto-Indo-European*men-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*m̥néh₁yeti
  6. Proto-Italic*m(V)nēō
  7. Latinmaneō
  8. Latinpermaneō
  9. Middle Frenchpermanent
  10. Englishpermanentclip.
  11. Englishperma-
  12. Proto-Indo-European*prews-
  13. Proto-Indo-European*prustós
  14. Proto-Germanic*frustaz
  15. Proto-West Germanic*frost
  16. Old Englishfrost
  17. Middle Englishfrost
  18. Englishfrost
  19. English todaypermafrost

From perma- + frost.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.