Skip to main content

Word Wednesday: Gelid


Definition of GELID
: extremely cold : icy <gelid water> gelid reserve — New Yorker>
— ge·lid·i·ty \jə-ˈli-də-tē, je-\ noun
— gel·id·ly \ˈje-ləd-lē\ adverb

Origin of GELID
Latin gelidus, from gelu frost, cold — more at cold
First Known Use: 1599

Related to GELID
Synonyms: algid, arctic, bitter, bone-chilling, chill, chilly, coldish, cool, coolish, freezing, frigid, frosty, cold, glacial, ice-cold, icy, nipping, nippy, numbing, polar, shivery, snappy, wintry (also wintery)
Antonyms: ardent, blazing, boiling, broiling, burning, fervent, fervid, fiery, glowing, hot, igneous, molten, piping hot, red-hot, roasting, scalding, scorching, searing, seething, sizzling, sultry, sweltering, torrid, ultrahot, warming, white-hot

Examples of GELID:
“The look she gave him was intensely gelid and he shied away from its frost.”
“I like my coffee gelid in the summertime.”
“Hey dude, that car is totally gelid. Can I drive it?”
“No, dude. Driving someone else’s car is totally not gelid.”
Anecdote about GELID:
When I first discovered this word I decided it would be the new slang that all the hip and trendy kids used when talking to each other (see my plans coming to fruition in the above examples). In an effort to get this to take off, I would throw the word “gelid” into random conversation and wait for people to pick up on it. What happened most of the time was that people would give me weird looks and say, “What?!” So eventually I gave up the ghost and have been waiting for the day that this word would make its reappearance. Today is apparently that day. Use “gelid” in a conversation today and see how people react. It will immediately establish you as either a. someone with a witty and extensive vocabulary or b. a total nerd who needs to be given a swirly. Enjoy!

Comments

  1. AnonymousAugust 10, 2011 at 7:52 AM

    Horray for getting my head put in the gelid waters of a toilet.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LHawkAugust 10, 2011 at 8:54 AM

    Well, I just learned a new word today.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AmandaAugust 12, 2011 at 9:14 AM

    Okay, this is a stupid question, but is it pronounced GEL-id. Or ga-LID. Or Hell-id? Or... is that last one just trying to get too Hispanic with it?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner(s)!

Did you know that you can buy an entire chicken at the grocery story for less than $6? Well, you can. And if you are willing to put up with a little home butchering, it can make enough food to last you almost a week. I bought a chicken last weekend for our Sunday meal, and used the last of it just yesterday. This is a huge help when you are trying to mitigate the expensive cost of meat in your grocery budget. First, it needs a little work. I roasted the chicken for our weekend dinner, and I always butterfly it because it cooks faster that way. I'm not going to sugarcoat it--butterflying a chicken is kind of gross. Really gross, actually. But if you can overcome your squeamishness, it cooks great. There are a lot of great tutorials for doing this on YouTube, but here is how I did it.  Step 1: Remove the giblets (the heart, neck, and gizzard). This is disgusting because you must reach into a dead animal and pull out its organs. But once they are out, you can throw them away, ...
1 comment
Read more

I Am Afraid of Snakes

I am giving you some valuable information here. Snakes are my biggest fear. My second biggest fear is that upon discovering my biggest fear, people will pounce on it and send me snakes in the mail, or put them in my bed, or my car, or throw them in my face like David Bowie did to Jennifer Connelly in Labyrinth . So, the other day, when Norris was getting ready to go on a short trip, we were talking about all the critters in our yard. Normally I like all these critters. We have a bunch of toads (like, seriously, we have like 20 toads in our back yard—and that’s just the ones we can find. Toads freaking love us.) and a couple tree frogs, and some praying mantises, and snails, and a family of birds (dusky flycatchers—the babies all just flew away and I was very sad) that nested in our patio light fixture, and for a few days we had a raccoon living in one of our trees. We also have a couple of hawks (I mean two hawks that are in a committed relationship. We know they care about each...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Fungus Among Us

Aren't they pretty?  I love mushrooms. I think they are cute, and pretty, and fascinating. Before all this rain, I even bought a couple ceramic mushrooms to put in the flower bed because they make me think of the forest floor in a fairytale. Now that we’ve gotten so much moisture, though, we have tons of living mushrooms all over the garden! The main garden. Carrots in front. Speaking of the garden itself, it is nice and green, but having a little trouble actually growing because all the weather has kept temperatures cooler than they normally are this time of year. We haven’t gotten nearly as many spring blooms as we normally do, and all the tropical plants, like our passion flower vine and hibiscus and bird of paradise are enjoying the rain but not the cooler temps. Yellow squash!  Nevertheless, here is what is happening in the garden this year so far: carrots, onions, garlic, tomatoes, purple bell peppers, sweet jalapenos, zuchinni, land yellow sq...
Post a Comment
Read more