glacio

Forms

glaciō (present infinitive glaciāre, perfect active glaciāvī, supine glaciātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is a denominal verb, formed from Latin glaciēs (“ice”) + -ō.^[2][3][1] For the noun de Vaan finds no good etymology: it means the same as gelus, but cannot be derived in any meaningful way from a root meaning “to be cold”.^[4] Etymonline connects the noun with Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold; to freeze”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL's first passage is a verse fragment of Quintus Cicero, where midwinter is gelu glacians, “freezing with frost”.^[3] Horace (65–8 BC)^[6] uses it transitively in the Odes, of Jupiter freezing the fallen snow under a clear sky: positas ut glaciet nives puro numine Iuppiter.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis and Short note that it is not found before the Augustan age.^[7] Besides freezing water, it was used of curdling cheese with fig twigs (Columella)^[2] and, intransitively, of fat that does not set in summer unless wax is added (Pliny the Elder).^[2] Seneca and Pliny use the passive of what is frozen solid, Pliny often: hail, crystal, and wine standing frozen when its vessels had burst.^[3] Lactantius reports Empedocles' view that the sky is frozen air.^[3]

English took the participle glaciātus as glaciate “to freeze” in the 1620s.^[5]

Timeline

• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of snow turned to ice.^[2][6]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses the passive of what is frozen around Scythia and the Pontus.^[3][6]
• 1st century AD – Columella uses it of curdling cheese.^[2][6]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it intransitively, of fat that sets.^[2][6]
• 1620s – English borrows glaciātus as glaciate.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To turn into ice, freeze.^[2][7]
2. (transitive) To curdle (cheese).^[2]
3. (intransitive) To congeal, set, solidify.^[2]

Related words

• conglaciō
• English glaciate

References

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