gelo

Forms

gelo m (plural gelos)^[1] Houaiss and Cunha record the older form geo in the 13th century and gelo from the 14th.^[2][3] Folqman (1755) writes gêlo with a circumflex, a spelling Wiktionary also lists.^[4][1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin gelū (“frost, ice”), first recorded in the 14th century.^[2][3][1] It took the place of the inherited Old Galician-Portuguese geo, which is found in the 13th century.^[2][3][1] Corominas takes the kept /l/ as the mark of a learned word, comparing the verb gear “to freeze”, where the inherited form lost it; in the same way he counts Italian gelo as learned, while Catalan gel and Occitan gel are popular words.^[5]

The inherited outcomes of the Latin word include Spanish hielo, French gel and Romanian ger.^[6][7] García de Diego also lists Galician geo and Asturian xelu.^[8] Houaiss and Cunha name the Latin source as gelus and gelum, variants of the same noun.^[2][3][9]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *gelus and Proto-Indo-European *ǵel-u- (“cold, frost, ice”), and relates the Germanic words for “cold” and “to freeze”, such as calan (“to freeze”).^[10] Wiktionary derives it from the root Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”), the source of cold.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology quotes the Galician translation of the General Estoria: que esfriem et façam as neues et os gelos “that they grow cold and make the snows and the ices”.^[11] The first records thus have the plural for frozen water, beside snow.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Bluteau (1712–1728) describes gelo as the cold that makes liquids set and notes that it had no plural, while Morais's edition of 1813 defines it as snow frozen hard and glassy.^[12][13] Vieira (1871–1874) explains it as water made solid by the loss of heat, in the physics of his time.^[14]

Figurative senses for intense cold, for indifference and for a cold reception are recorded by Houaiss, Aurélio and the DLP.^[2][15][16] In Brazil the word also names a very pale grey colour, used as an invariable adjective.^[2][16] In the Brazilian dialect surveys of the TLPGP, gelo is also a name for hail, drizzle and dew.^[17]

The word passed into Kabuverdianu as gelu and into Guinea-Bissau Creole as djelu.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – the inherited form geo.^[2][3]
• 14th century – first record of gelo.^[2][3]
• 16th century – first record of the derivative congelar;^[4] enregelar is of the same century.^[3]
• 17th century – first record of degelar.^[3]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau gives gelo as the cold that sets liquids.^[12]
• 1755 – Folqman spells the word gêlo.^[4]
• 1813 – Morais defines it as snow frozen hard and glassy.^[13]
• 1844 – first record of degelo.^[3]
• 20th century – first record of geladeira.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. ice: water, or another liquid, made solid by cold: A água do tanque virou gelo.^[2][15][1]
2. A piece or cube of ice: Queres gelo na limonada?^[2][18][1]
3. (figurative) Intense cold: No inverno esta casa é um gelo.^[2][15][19]
4. (figurative) indifference, lack of warmth or of enthusiasm towards someone.^[2][19][16]
5. (in the plural) Great frozen expanses, ice fields.^[2][20]

Adjective

1. (Brazil) Of a very pale grey, the colour of ice; invariable.^[2][16][1]

Word family

• gelinho
• gelo seco
• degelo
• degelar
• enregelar

Related words

• congelado
• congelamento
• congelar
• geada
• gear
• geladinho
• gelado
• gelar
• geleira
• Latin gelū
• Spanish hielo

Usage notes

Quebrar o gelo “to break the ice” means to start a conversation and end an awkward silence; in Brazil, dar um gelo em alguém is to give someone the cold shoulder.^[2]

The original Caldas Aulete also has a separate gelo naming the Geli, an ancient people of Central Asia, from their Latin name.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. gelo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. gelo
4. ^ a b c Folqman, Carlos (1755), Diccionario portuguez, e latino, Lisboa: Régia Officina Silviana (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gelo
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 353
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. gelu
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. hielo
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. gelu
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. gelū
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. gelo
12. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. gelo
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 2, 83
14. ^ Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 3, 848
15. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. gelo
16. ^ a b c d Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. gelo
17. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. gelo
18. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. gelo
19. ^ a b Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. gelo
20. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. gelo