Icy

How to spell icy

3 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce icy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does icy mean?

1. adjectiveCovered with, made of, or as cold as ice; or coldly unfriendly in manner.

Icy in a sentence

• The morning commute was slow because the roads were still icy.

• An icy wind cut across the open car park.

Where does icy come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes straight from Old English, where the adjective was isig, formed from is, the native word for ice. The suffix -ig, ancestor of modern -y, simply meant 'full of' or 'covered with', so isig literally described something coated in or made of ice. The root is belongs to a wide Germanic family, with close relatives in the Dutch ijs and the German Eis, all going back to a common ancestor for frozen water. When ice picked up its silent spelling pattern, the adjective dropped the final e of ice before adding -y, which is why we write icy rather than 'icey'. Over the centuries the figurative sense grew alongside the literal one, so a cold welcome or a freezing stare could also be called icy.

How the word is built

• ice (frozen water)
• -y (adjective suffix, full of or characterised by)