English
ice
Ice comes from Old English īs, from Proto-Germanic *īsą ‘ice’, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyH- ‘ice, frost’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁eyH-1‘ice’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁eyH-so-1reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*īsą1reconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*īs1reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150īs1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hyse1
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602ice1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English ice
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1599–1602, William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet: “If thou doſt marry, Ile giue thee / This…”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁eyH-Wiktionary, English ice‘ice’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₁eyH-so-Wiktionary, English icereconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*īsąWiktionary, English icereconstructed
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*īsWiktionary, English icereconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150īsWiktionary, English ice
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500hyseWiktionary, English ice
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602iceWiktionary, English ice. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1599–1602, William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet: “If thou doſt marry, Ile giue thee / This…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with ice, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyH- ‘ice, frost’
- yew ← ew ← īw ← *īwaz ← *h₁eyHw-
Explore everything descended from *h₁eyH- →
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Today it means
noun Water in frozen (solid) form.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “ice”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.