gelidus

Forms

gelidus (feminine gelida, neuter gelidum, comparative gelidior, superlative gelidissimus, adverb gelidē); first/second-declension adjective^[1] Lucretius has the archaic genitive gelidāī.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin gelū (“frost, cold”) + -idus.^[3][4][1] De Vaan traces the noun to Proto-Italic *gelus and Proto-Indo-European *ǵel-u- (“cold, frost, ice”), cognate with Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌻𐌳𐍃 (kalds, “cold”) and Old English calan (“to freeze”); by sound change ⟨*gelu-⟩ should have become ⟨*golu-⟩, and he assumes the ⟨e⟩ was restored from the adjective.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cato, De agri cultura, warns against working timber that is not dry, frozen (gelidam) or wet with dew.^[3][5][6]

Semantic evolution

Gelidus is icy cold, of weather and places (Accius' “cold snows”), the northern sky, creatures numb with cold, and water (Cicero).^[3] Lewis & Short note that it is stronger than frīgidus.^[2] Used of what should be warm, it is the chill of death (Lucretius), of an altar whose fire is out, of blood frozen by fear (Virgil: gelidus formīdine sanguis) and slowed by old age.^[3] In a good sense it is refreshingly cold, of springs.^[3] Wiktionary adds “chilling”.^[1]

English gelid “very cold” dates from about 1600.^[7]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato of frozen timber.^[3][6]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of cold snows.^[3][6]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of limbs cold in death.^[3][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of blood frozen by fear.^[3][6]
• c. 1600 – English gelid.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. icy, ice-cold, frosty; frozen.^[3][1]
2. Cold in death;^[3][1] (of blood) chilled by fear or age; chilling.^[3][1]
3. Refreshingly cold.^[3]

Word family

• ēgelidus
• gelidē

Related words

• gelō
• gelum
• gelū
• English gelid

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com