glacier

See also: Glacier

English

Perito Moreno Glacier, Patagonia, Argentina

Etymology

Borrowed from French glacier, from Franco-Provençal gllaciér, from Vulgar Latin *glaciārium, a derivative of Latin glaciēs (“ice”), of uncertain origin. First attested in English in 1744 per the OED.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡlæs.jə/, /ˈɡleɪs.jə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡleɪ.ʃɚ/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈɡleɪ.ʃɚ/, /ˈɡleɪs.jɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

glacier (plural glaciers)

1. (geology) A large body of ice which flows under its own mass, usually downhill.

   They warned that the effects of glacier melting on water resources are becoming “increasingly serious” for China.

2. (mountaineering) An area of a mountain where snow is present year-round.

   You can ski down the glacier in both the winter and the summer.

Derived terms

• continental glacier
• Doomsday Glacier
• East Glacier Park
• glacial
• glaciation
• glacier bird
• glacier buttercup
• Glacier County
• glacier cream
• glaciered
• Glaciergate
• glacier glasses
• glacierist
• glacierization
• glacierized
• glacierless
• glacierlike
• glacier lily
• glacier milk
• glacier mouse
• Hubbard Glacier
• palaeoglacier
• paleoglacier
• rock glacier
• Ruth Glacier
• salt glacier
• Siachen Glacier
• snowdrift glacier
• Thwaites Glacier

Related terms

• glaciate
• glaciology

Translations

a large body of ice which flows under its own mass, usually downhill

• Afrikaans: gletser (af)
• Albanian: akullnajë f
• Arabic: مَثْلَجَة f (maṯlaja), مَجْلَدَة f (majlada)
• Armenian: սառցադաշտ (hy) (saṙcʻadašt)
• Azerbaijani: buzlaq (az)
• Basque: glaziar
• Bavarian: gletscha
• Belarusian: ледаві́к m (ljedavík)
• Bengali: হিমবাহ (bn) (himbaho)
• Breton: skorneg
• Bulgarian: ле́дник (bg) m (lédnik)
• Burmese: ရေခဲမြစ် (my) (rehkai:mrac)
• Catalan: glacera (ca)
• Central Melanau: pejujoh
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 冰川 (zh) (bīngchuān), 冰河 (zh) (bīnghé)

• Cornish: rewiva, rewliv
• Corsican: ghjacciale
• Czech: ledovec (cs) m
• Danish: gletsjer (da) c, jøkel c, bræ c
• Dutch: gletsjer (nl) m
• Esperanto: glaĉero (eo), glaciaro, glaciejo (eo)
• Estonian: liustik
• Faroese: jøkul m
• Finnish: jäätikkö (fi)
• French: glacier (fr) m
• Galician: glaciar m
• Georgian: მყინვარი (mq̇invari)
• German: Gletscher (de) m, Ferner (de) m, Kees (de) n
• Greek: παγετώνας (el) m (pagetónas)
• Greenlandic: sermeq
• Hebrew: קַרְחוֹן (he) (karkhon)
• Hindi: हिमानी (hi) (himānī), हिमनदी f (himandī)
• Hungarian: gleccser (hu)
• Icelandic: jökull (is) m, ísbreiða f
• Ido: glaciero (io)
• Indonesian: gletser (id)
• Irish: oighearshruth m
• Italian: ghiacciaio (it) m
• Japanese: 氷河 (ja) (ひょうが, hyōga)
• Kazakh: мұздық (mūzdyq)
• Khmer: ផ្ទាំងទឹកកក (pteaŋ tɨk kɑɑ kɑɑ)
• Korean: 빙하 (ko) (bingha)
• Ladin: giacé
• Latin: glaciarium, glacier
• Latvian: ledājs (lv) m
• Limburgish: gletsjer (li)
• Lithuanian: ledynas m
• Luxembourgish: Gletscher m
• Macedonian: гле́чер m (gléčer), ле́дник m (lédnik), ле́деник m (lédenik)
• Malay: glasier (ms), (rare) sungai air batu
• Malayalam: ഹിമപ്പരപ്പ് (himapparappŭ)
• Manx: awin rioee
• Maori: hukāpo
• Mongolian: мөсөн гол (mösön gol)
• Nepali: हिमनदी (ne) (himanadī)
• Northern Sami: jiehkki
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bre (no) m, isbre m, jøkel m

  Nynorsk: bre m, isbre m, jøkul m

• Occitan: glacièr (oc), conglaç (oc)
• Ossetian: цъити (c’iti)
• Persian: یخسار (fa) (yaxsâr)
• Plautdietsch: Iessboach m
• Polish: lodowiec (pl) m
• Portuguese: glaciar (pt) m (Portugal), geleira (pt) f (Brazil)
• Romanian: ghețar (ro) m
• Romansch: glatscher, sglatscher, vadretg, vadret
• Russian: ледни́к (ru) m (ledník)
• Saterland Frisian: Glitsker
• Scottish Gaelic: eigh-shruth m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ледењак m, ледник m, глечер m

  Roman: ledènjāk (sh) m, lednik m, glȅčer (sh) m

• Sherpa: please add this translation if you can
• Shor: мустағ (mustağ)
• Sicilian: ghiacciaiu
• Sindhi: برفال (sd) m
• Slovak: ľadovec m
• Slovene: ledenik (sl) m
• Sorbian:

  Upper Sorbian: lodowc m

• Southern Sami: dielhtie
• Spanish: glaciar (es) m, helero m
• Swahili: barafuto (sw)
• Swedish: glaciär (sv) c, jökel (sv)
• Tagalog: glasyar
• Tamil: பனியாறு (ta) (paṉiyāṟu)
• Thai: ธารน้ำแข็ง (th) (taan-nám-kɛ̌ng)
• Tibetan: གངས (gangs), གངས་ཆེན (gangs chen), གངས་རི (gangs ri), འཁྱགས་ཀླུང ('khyags klung)
• Turkish: buzul (tr)
• Turkmen: buzluk (tk)
• Ukrainian: льодови́к m (lʹodovýk)
• Uzbek: muzlik (uz)
• Vietnamese: sông băng (vi)
• Volapük: gladäd (vo)
• Walloon: glaecî (wa)
• Welsh: rhewlif m
• West Frisian: gletsjer c
• Yakut: булуус (buluus)
• Yámana: táun
• Yiddish: גלעטשער (gletsher)
• Zazaki: cemediye

See also

• iceberg

Further reading

• glacier on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Cargile, gracile

Franco-Provençal

Noun

glacier (Old Valaisan, Old Vaudois)

1. alternative form of gllaciér (“glacier”)

References

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “glacies”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 4: G H I, page 139: “Afrpr. glacier m. „grand amas de glace provenant de la transformation de la neige, dans les montagnes“ (seit 1332)... [Footnote, p. 142:] Beleg aus Waadt, 1349 aus Wallis...”

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡla.sje/

• Audio:

  (file)

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Franco-Provençal gllaciér. First attested in 1757. Cognate with German Gletscher.

Noun

glacier m (plural glaciers)

1. (geology) glacier

Descendants

• →? Catalan: glacera (calque)
• → English: glacier
• → Italian: ghiacciaio (calque)
• → New Latin: glaciārium (calque)
• → Romanian: ghețar (calque)
• → Spanish: glaciar
  • → Galician: glaciar
  • → Portuguese: glaciar

Etymology 2

glace (“mirror; ice-cream”) +‎ -ier (occupational suffix).

Noun

glacier m (plural glaciers)

1. (dated) maker of mirrors
2. seller of ice-cream
3. (by extension) ice-cream parlour

   Synonyms: glacerie, crémerie, bar laitier

References

• “glacier”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• giclera