ice
Definitions
General English
Food
- Frozen water sometimes used in place of water where intense agitation or prolonged processing might overheat a mixture. The energy necessary to melt ice would heat the same mass of water by 80°C. Also used for cooling.
Slang
- noun diamonds or other jewellery. An underworld term in all English-speaking areas, this word has also been heard in everyday speech.
- noun an illicit drug which appeared in Hawaii in 1989 and for a time seemed poised to replace crack as a major social scourge in the USA. Ice is a highly synthesised version of methamphetamine (the archetypal speed as abused in the 1960s and 1970s under the name of methedrine).
- verb to kill. An American underworld term which may initially have been a shortened form of ‘put someone on ice’. The word has been popularised by its use in crime films and TV series.
Travel
- noun ice cream
- noun frozen water, as a surface for e.g. skating
- verb to add ice to something, such as a drink
- verb to put icing on a cake
Astronomy
- acronym forInternational Cometary Explorer (written as ICE)
- US spacecraft launched as one of three International Sun-Earth Explorers in 1977 to look at the solar wind. It was later renamed and diverted to observe comet Giacobini-Zinner in 1985 and to pass over 30 million km from Halley’s Comet in 1986.
Cars & Driving
- acronym forin-car entertainment (written as ICE)
- noun a car audio system, typically consisting of a radio/cassette player and perhaps a CD player.
Investing
- acronym forIntercontinental Exchange (written as ICE)
Electronics
- acronym forin-circuit emulator (written as ICE)
- acronym forInformation and Content Exchange (written as ICE)
- A chip which emulates a given processor, and which serves for testing and debugging logic circuits. Its acronym is ICE.
Computing
- noun a circuit that emulates a device or integrated circuit and is inserted into a new or faulty circuit to test if it is working correctly
Origin & History of “ice”
Ice is a widespread word among the Germanic languages – German has eis, for instance. Dutch ijs, and Swedish and Danish is – but beyond that its connections are somewhat dubious. some of the more easterly Indo-European languages have or had similar-looking forms, including Old Iranian isu- ‘frosty, icy’, modern Iranian yak ‘ice’, and Afghan asaī ‘frost’, which suggest the possibility of a common source.
Iceberg (18th c.) was perhaps an adaptation of Danish and Norwegian isberg, literally ‘ice mountain’.
Iceberg (18th c.) was perhaps an adaptation of Danish and Norwegian isberg, literally ‘ice mountain’.
