icicle
/ˈʌɪsɪk(ə)l
/noun
A hanging, tapering piece of ice formed by the freezing of dripping water.Then, on location for 1993's The Age of Innocence in Troy, New York, Scorsese ran across an 1896 photo of a burned-out building, hauntingly dripping with icicles....
- Anastas and his friends endure the cold water, watching icicles form on the brims of their neoprene hoods, to get some of the best surfing of the year.
- I drank three coffees and forced myself out for a brisk walk to photograph the dripping icicles before they melt.
Origin
Middle English: from ice + dialect ickle 'icicle' (from Old English gicel).
Before a hanging, tapering piece of ice was an icicle it was an ickle. In the early Middle Ages people put ice and ickle together to form a compound; writers spelled the term as two words into the 17th century, but then speakers lost sight of its origins and icicle emerged as the standard term.