Etymology Dictionary

ICICLE,  a hanging point of ice.  (E.; partly C.)   M. E. isikel; spelt ysekel, iseyokel, isykle, isechel, P. Plowman, B. xvii. 227; C. xx. 193.   Compounded of M. E. ys, ice (see Ice); and ikyl, also used alone in the same sense of 'icicle,' as in Prompt. Parv., p. 259.   Levins also has ickles = icicles.—A. S. ísgicel, compounded of ís, ice, and gicel, a small piece of ice; orig. written íses gicel, where íses is in the gen. case.   'Stiria, íses gicel;'  Ælfric's Gloss., in Wright's Vocab. i. 21, col. 2.   β. Gicel is a dimin. form from gic-, put for IK or IAK, an old word for 'ice,' still preserved in Celtic, viz. in the Irish aigh, Gael. eigh, W. ia (for iag), ice.   Thus the word really = ice-ice-l, though the second ice is a Celtic word and not the same word with the first. + Icel. íss, ice; and jökull (used by itself), an icicle, dimin. of jaki, a piece of ice, cognate with or borrowed from the Celtic word above indicated. + Low G. is-hekel, in the Ditmarsh dialect isjäkel; Bremen Wörterbuch, ii. 704.   ¶ Observe that -ic- in ic-ic-le is totally different from -ic- in art-ic-le, part-ic-le.