Etymologically
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gelidus

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɡɛ.lɪ.dʊs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈd͡ʒɛː.li.dus][1]

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
  • 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