Etymologically
Log in

gelo

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Latin word gelo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
4 BC–65 AD, Seneca
Ultimate origin
Latin gelū
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin gelu
Latin gelo
From the same root
Latin gelidus ← gelu

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɡɛ.ɫoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈd͡ʒɛː.lo][1]

Forms

gelō (present infinitive gelāre, perfect active gelāvī, supine gelātum); first conjugation[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin gelū (“frost, ice”), a verb formed on the noun;[2][3][1] the TLL traces it both to the noun and to the compound congelō (“to freeze”).[4] The noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold; to freeze”).[1][5]

It survives in Italian gelare, French geler and Spanish helar.[4] English jelly is borrowed from Old French gelee, the past participle of the Old French verb used as a noun.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it from Seneca and Columella on.[4] Seneca, writing about lightning, says that it freezes wine.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means to turn to ice or freeze, also intransitively, and impersonally to be frosty, as when Pliny the Elder says a crop is not gathered before there has been a frost.[2][3] It was used of anything that chills the body: death, disease, poison and fear, as in Lucan's stat corde gelātō attonitus, “he stands stunned, his heart frozen”.[2] Columella uses it of cheese setting and of milk curdling,[2] and Martial of a river that tempers iron.[3]

Its Romance descendants kept the sense “freeze”, and through French it gave English jelly.[4][5]

Timeline

  • 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca says lightning freezes wine.[2][4][6]
  • 1st century AD – Columella uses it of cheese setting.[2][4][6]
  • 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it impersonally of frost.[2][6]
  • 40–102/103 AD – Martial speaks of a river that tempers iron.[3][6]
  • late 14th century – English jelly is borrowed from Old French gelee, a noun use of the past participle of its descendant.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. to freeze, turn to ice;[2][3] (impersonal) to be frosty.[2][3]
  2. to chill (the body), as death, disease or fear do.[2]
  3. to congeal, set; to curdle, thicken.[2]

Word family

  • circumgelō
  • congelō
  • egelo
  • gelascō
  • gelātiō
  • praegelō
  • regelō

References

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

“Gelo.” Etymologically, 23 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/gelo. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·