Glacier
/ˈɡlæʃər/noun
A large mass of ice that moves slowly over land.
Did you know?English got glacier from French, but the word’s deeper ancestor is a prehistoric root for “ice” that also lives on in words for frost and freezing cold across Indo-European languages.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*gel-
“to be cold, to freeze; ice, frost”
Latin
Latin
glaciēs
“ice; frost”
Old French
Old French
glacier
“a mass of ice; an ice field”
18th Century
English
glacier
“a large body of moving ice, especially in the Alps”
Modern English
English
glacier
“a large mass of ice that moves slowly over land”