1744, from French glacier (16c.), from Savoy dialect glacière "moving mass of ice," from Old French glace "ice," from Vulgar Latin *glacia (source also of Old Provençal glassa, Italian ghiaccia), from Latin glacies "ice," probably from a suffixed form of PIE root *gel- "cold; to freeze." The German Swiss form gletscher also was used in English (1764).
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "cold; to freeze."
It forms all or part of: chill; cold; congeal; cool; gel; gelatine; gelatinous; gelato; gelid; glace; glacial; glaciate; glaciation; glacier; glaciology; glacis; jell; jelly.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Latin gelare "to freeze," gelu "frost," glacies "ice;" Old English cald "cold, cool," German kalt.
"ridge of rock deposited along the edge of a glacier," 1789, from French moraine (18c.), from Savoy dialect morena "mound of earth," from Provençal morre "snout, muzzle," from Vulgar Latin *murrum "round object," a word of unknown origin, perhaps from a pre-Latin Alpine language. Related: Morainal; morainic.
1774, "glacier humped like a hill;" 1820 as "detached piece of a glacier or ice pack at sea," partial loan-translation of Dutch ijsberg, literally "ice mountain," from ijs "ice" (see ice (n.)) + berg "mountain" (from PIE root *bhergh- (2) "high," with derivatives referring to hills and hill-forts.). Similar formation in Norwegian isberg, Danish isbjerg.
Earlier English terms were sea-hill (1690s), island of ice (1610s). Phrase tip of the iceberg in a figurative sense (in allusion to most of it being unseen underwater) first recorded 1962. Iceberg lettuce attested from 1893, apparently originally a trade name.
"sloping bank" (especially leading up to a fortification), 1670s, from French glacir "to freeze, make slippery," from Old French glacier "to slip, glide," from Vulgar Latin *glaciare "to make or turn into ice," from Latin glacies "ice" (probably from a suffixed form of PIE root *gel- "cold; to freeze").
mid-15c., of weapons, "strike obliquely without giving full impact," a nasalized form of glacen "to graze, strike a glancing blow" (c. 1300), from Old French glacier "to slip, make slippery" (compare Old French glaciere "part of a knight's armor meant to deflect blows"), from glace "ice" (see glacial). Sense of "look quickly" (first recorded 1580s) probably was by influence of Middle English glenten "look askance" (see glint (v.)), which also could account for the -n-. Related: Glanced; glancing.
late 14c., from Gaelic loch "lake, lake-like body," including the narrow, nearly land-locked arms of the sea found in the glacier-scoured landscape of west Scotland; cognate with Old Irish loch "body of water, lake," Breton lagen, Anglo-Irish lough, Latin lacus (see lake (n.1)). "The word was adopted in ONorthumbrian as luh" [OED]. The diminutive form is lochan.
The phrase Loch Ness monster is attested by 1934, the thing itself under slightly different names from 1933. The loch is named for the river Ness that flows out of it at Inverness; the river name is probably from an Old Celtic word meaning "roaring one."
"pendent mass of ice tapering downward to a point, formed by the freezing of drops of water flowing down from the place of attachment," early 14c., isykle, from is "ice" (see ice (n.)) + Middle English ikel, a word that by itself meant "icicle," from Old English gicel "icicle, ice" (found in compounds, such as cylegicel "chill ice"), from Proto-Germanic *jekilaz (source also of Old Norse jaki "piece of ice," diminutive jökull "icicle, ice; glacier;" Old High German ihilla "icicle"), from PIE *yeg- "ice" (source also of Middle Irish aig "ice," Welsh ia). Dialectal ickle "icicle" survived into 20c.
The latter element came to lose its independent meaning, and has suffered under popular etymology; explained in books as a mere dim. termination -icle, as in article, particle, etc., it appears transformed in the obs. or dial. forms ice-sickle, ise-sicklc, ice-shackle, ice-shoggle, OSc. iceshogle, icechokill, etc. [Century Dictionary]
