Ice Idioms

Several words have become part of the language in being used in phrases. Last time we looked at ‘sand’ and now look at ‘ice’.

Putting something ‘on ice’, as in keeping it out of the way until required, is first seen in 1890.

Thin ice, used in the figurative sense, appears in print as early as 1884.

To break the ice, as in making the first attempt (usually socially in the modern era), is used as early as 1580. Yet these early usages would invariably be speaking of breaking the ice on the water to permit boats to pass and allow trade to continue.

Ice fishing, and for those who wonder why anyone would be catching ice, it refers to fishing through a hole in the ice, is not described as such before 1869, although undoubtedly the method has been used since pre-history.

Ice-scrapers are first described in 1789, not in reference to clearing a car’s windscreen or defrosting the freezer, it was a tool used in cookery.

Icing, that dreadfully sickly sweet stuff people will insist on coating cakes with, has been seen since 1769. Earlier, and at least from 1723, it was simply described as ‘ice’. Not until 1881 did the alternative ‘frosting’ come into use – and if you think that’s purely a US term, it’s becoming increasingly common in the UK, too.

Nobody used, or at least described, ice-skates until 1690.

Ice as a slang term for diamonds first appears in print in 1906.

Ice cubes, now normally simply said to be ‘ice’, were not described prior to 1902, although there is an advertisement from 1894 which tempts us into buying ‘Artificial Ice in Cubes’ – artificial in the sense of being man-made rather than gathered from natural formations.

The last Ice Age may have ended some eight thousand years ago, but nobody referred to the great freeze as such until 1855.

Ice box was once a storage device for ice, first described in 1839, although today it would be that small freezer area in the refrigerator where trays were once kept to produce ice and which could not be named prior to the invention of the fridge for the home in 1913.

Ice picks are first described in 1858, one wonders what they were called prior to that.

Ice cream has been known as such since 1744, and since 1680 as ‘iced cream’. Note the ice cream cone was not named until 1909.

No vessel was ice bound before 1650.

Ice caps didn’t exist before 1859.

Icicles are first described in the early 14th century.

Icebergs are first known as such in 1820, prior to that the iceberg was a lumpy portion of a glacier. Before that there were other terms used for that which sank the Titanic, sea-hill (1690s), or island of ice (1610s).

Iceberg lettuce, which has never been known to sink any vessel in recorded history, is first named in 1893. (I wonder if they served iceberg lettuce aboard the Titanic?)