gelid

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin gelidus (“icy cold, frosty”),^[2][3][4][5] from gelū (“frost, intense cold”), also gelum,^[2][3][6][5] probably formed on the analogy of calidus (“warm”).^[7] The Latin noun is related to glaciēs (“ice”) and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold; to freeze”),^[7][3][6] the source also of Ancient Greek γελανδρός (gelandrós, “cold”) and of Old English ceald, the ancestor of cold.^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Extremely cold, icy: 1606, in J. Marston's Wonder of Women.^[2] Merriam-Webster gives 1599 as the first known use,^[4] and Etymonline about 1600.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Soon after its first record it was used figuratively, in Jonson's New Inne of 1631;^[2] a weaker sense, merely cold or chill, often of water that is refreshingly cold, follows in 1659.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave only "extremely cold", quoting Thomson's Spring: From the deep ooze and gelid cavern rous'd.^[8] The figurative use continues in modern prose, of a person's manner or reserve.^[4][9]

Timeline

• 1606 – extremely cold, icy.^[2]
• 1631 – figurative use.^[2]
• 1659 – in a weaker sense, cold or chill; of water, refreshingly cold.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Extremely cold; icy or frosty: the gelid water of the mountain lake.^[10][4][2]
2. Cold in manner; without warmth of feeling: She answered with gelid courtesy.^[4][2][9]
3. In a weaker sense, cold or chill, as water that is refreshingly cold.^[2]

Word family

• gelidity
• gelidly

Related words

• cold
• glacial
• congeal
• jelly

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins