Word of the Day

Friday January 15, 2010

gelid [JEL-id]

adjective

There is much jeopardy when it comes to chucking (or easing) yourself into unseen, gelid, moving bodies of water. Heart attack. Hypothermia. Dangerous currents. Giant, man-eating pike. Injurious obstacles. Mucky floating stuff. So let's get the health and safety bit out of the way now. Don't do it. It's perilous

Sarah Hall, "Guide to the night: Part one: Stargazing, night walks and ghost spotting: The agony and the ecstasy: Do you shiver at the thought of diving into water with only the moon to warm you?", The Guardian, Oct 24, 2009
His attention span may be somewhat limited -- he prefers skimming along crystalline surfaces to probing gelid depths -- but his voice is so engaging and his writing so crisp that I was usually happy to keep him company wherever he zig-zagged.

David Laskin, "Where the Weather Outside Is Frightful", The Washington Post, Aug 9, 2009
Many are the infirmities and ailments which are relieved through the intercession of Saint Clotilda, after the patient has been plunged in the gelid spring.

Dawson Turner Account of a Tour in Normandy, Vol. II

Origin of the Word

Gelid, approximately 1599, derives from Latin gelidus, from gelu, "frost, cold."