Weatherwatch: how the icicle got its name

The Old English word for icicle was once gicel, which has evolved with variants including 'ickle', 'shockle' and 'shuggle'"Icicle" sounds as though it is formed from "ice" and the diminutive "-cle", like particle or cubicle. The truth is stranger.About 1,000 years ago, the Old English word for icicle was gicel. A scribe translated the Latin term stiria as "ises gicel", or "icicle made of ice". This redundancy may have been an attempt to distinguish it from a stalactite, sometimes called a "water icicle". "Ises gicel" was gradually contracted to icicle. Continue reading...