Etymograph

English

glacial

Glacial comes from French glacial ‘freezing, ice-cold, very cold’, from Latin glaciālis ‘icy, frozen, glacial’, and ultimately from glaciēs ‘ice’.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEglaciēs‘ice’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEglaciālis‘icy, frozen, glacial’
  3. Frenchc. 1600–presentglacial‘freezing, ice-cold, very cold’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1917same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEglaciēs‘ice’
  2. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEglaciālis‘icy, frozen, glacial’
  3. Frenchc. 1600–presentglacial‘freezing, ice-cold, very cold’
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1917same form

Earliest quotation: 1917, Everybody's Magazine - Volume 37, Issue 2: “He could remember a day that he had spent…”

The story

The sense "slow" refers to the speed of actual glaciers, typically around 1 meter per day.

Every English word from Latin glaciēs

Today it means

adj Of, or relating to glaciers.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Latin glaciēs / glacial

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