ghiaccio

Forms

ghiaccio m (plural ghiacci)^[1] Tuscan has the variant diaccio.^[2][3] Old forms include Old Italian ghiacio, Old Italian giaccio, Old Italian chiaccio and northern Old Italian giazo.^[4] The adjective ghiaccio has the feminine ghiaccia and the plurals ghiacci, ghiacce.^[1][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *glăcia, a spoken form of the classical Latin glaciēs (“ice”).^[6][7][8][1] The Latin feminine kept its gender in every Romance language but Italian, where the oldest texts have both the feminine Old Italian ghiaccia and the masculine; the feminine survives in some dialects and place names.^[7][6] Sabatini–Coletti and the GDLI think the masculine was influenced by gelo.^[3][9] In the Tuscan diaccio the Latin cluster /ɡl/ became the voiced affricate /dʒ/.^[3]

The same Latin word is French glace and Romanian gheață.^[7][10] Spanish and Portuguese, like Sardinian, use words from Latin gelū (“frost”) instead: Spanish hielo, Portuguese gelo.^[11] The formation of the Latin noun is unclear: it has the same meaning as the word for frost, and is usually compared with it, but de Vaan finds no sensible way to derive it from a root meaning “to be cold”.^[6][12][1]

The adjective meaning “icy cold” is a shortened past participle of ghiacciare, recorded from the 13th century.^[7][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Sicilian poet Giacomo da Lentini (about 1230–1250), in a Tuscan copy, with the sense “water in its solid state”, the coldest thing of all.^[4] DELI's first record is in Bono Giamboni (before 1292), and Brunetto Latini (before 1294) has the feminine ghiaccia.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word also for a frozen surface or glacier, for hail and frost, and by metonymy for winter, the tempo del ghiaccio.^[4] Love poets set ice against fire: the lady's coldness against the lover's ardour, or disappointment against hope, and the ice of sudden dismay at her beauty.^[4] Petrarch already wrote of the snow and ice in the valleys in place of grass,^[13] and the figurative rompere il ghiaccio “to break the ice” goes back to him.^[14]

The derivative ghiacciaio “glacier” was formed as a masculine of ghiacciaia to translate French glacier and German Gletscher; recorded before 1836, it spread through Antonio Stoppani's Il Bel Paese (1875).^[6] Ghiacciolo meant an icicle from the 14th century and an ice lolly from 1959.^[6] The adjective appears in Poliziano's line on “living water, clear and icy” (l'acqua viva chiara e ghiaccia).^[9][2]

Timeline

• About 1230–1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses ghiaccio and ghiaccia.^[4]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses ghiaccio.^[6]
• 14th century – Ghiacciolo “icicle” is recorded.^[6]
• 1681 – Daniello Bartoli uses ghiacciaia “ice house”.^[6]
• Before 1836 – Ghiacciaio “glacier” is recorded.^[6]
• 1875 – Antonio Stoppani's Il Bel Paese spreads ghiacciaio.^[6]
• 1959 – Ghiacciolo is recorded in the sense “ice lolly”.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. ice: water in its solid state, below 0 °C: Metti due cubetti di ghiaccio nel bicchiere.^[5][2][1]
2. ghiaccio secco: dry ice, solid carbon dioxide used for refrigeration.^[2][3][8]
3. (in the plural) The ice of polar seas and very cold places.^[1][9]

Adjective

1. Icy, very cold: Ho i piedi ghiacci.^[5][2][8]

Word family

• ghiacciare
• ghiacciaia
• ghiacciaio
• ghiacciata
• ghiacciato
• ghiacciolo
• ghiacciatura
• agghiacciare
• agghiacciante
• sghiacciare

Related words

• gelo
• Latin glaciēs
• French glace

Usage notes

Figurative phrases include rompere il ghiaccio “to break the ice”, essere di ghiaccio “to be unfeeling”, rimanere di ghiaccio “to be dumbfounded” and cuore di ghiaccio “heart of ice”.^[8][2][15] The adjective is uncommon and literary beside ghiacciato.^[1][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
5. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 496
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana