1769 in the confectionery sense, "coating of concreted sugar," verbal noun of ice (v.). Earlier in this sense was simple ice (1723); frosting came later. Meaning "process of becoming covered with ice" is from 1881.

third letter of the Latin alphabet. Alphabetic writing came to Rome via the southern Etruscan "Caeretan" script, in which gamma was written as a crescent. Early Romans made little use of Greek kappa and used gamma for both the "g" and "k" sounds, the latter more frequently, so that the "k" sound came to be seen as the proper one for gamma. Classical Latin -c-, with only the value "k," passed to Celtic and, via missionary Irish monks, to the Anglo-Saxons. Also see cee.

In some Old English words, before some vowels and in certain positions, -c- had a "ts" sound that was respelled ch- in Middle English by French scribes (chest, cheese, church; see ch). In Old English -k- was known but little used.

Meanwhile, in Old French, many "k" sounds drifted to "ts" and by 13c., "s," but still were written -c-. Thus the 1066 invasion brought to the English language a flood of French and Latin words in which -c- represented "s" (as in cease, ceiling, circle) and a more vigorous use of -k- to distinguish that sound. By 15c. even native English words with -s- were being respelled with -c- for "s" (ice, mice, lice).

Before c. 1800, English words now spelled in -c often ended in -ck and this is kept in picnicked, trafficking, panicky, shellacked, etc. to preserve the "k" sound of -c- before a suffix beginning in -i-, -y-, or -e-.

The final k, after c, in words derived from the learned languages, though carefully retained by Johnson and other writers, has been omitted, in conformity to modern custom and the originals. For it seems to me to be rather incongruous to write musick from musica, especially as the k has been exploded by general consent from the derivatives musician and musical. [John Ash, advertisement to "New and Complete Dictionary of the English Language," 1775]

In some English words from Italian, the -c- has a "ch" sound (via a sound evolution somewhat like the Old French one). In German, -c- in loanwords was regularized to -k- or -z- (depending on pronunciation) in the international spelling reform of 1901, which was based on the Duden guide of 1880.

As a symbol in the Roman numeral system, "one hundred;" the symbol originally was a Greek theta, but was later reduced in form and understood to stand for centum. In music, it is the name of the keynote of the natural scale, though the exact pitch varied in time and place 18c. and 19c. from 240 vibrations per second to 275; it wasn't entirely regularized (at 261.63) until the adoption of the A440 standard in the 1930s. C-spring as a type of carriage spring is from 1794, so called for its shape.

"remove the ice from," 1935, from de- + ice. Related: De-iced; de-icing. Agent noun de-icer is from 1932, originally of airplanes.

1855, from ice (n.) + age (n.). Perhaps translating German Eiszeit (1837). An earlier term in the same sense was glacial epoch (1841). Local scientific men had noticed from the late 18c. evidence that the Alpine glaciers once had been much larger; in the 1830s stray boulders, moraines, and polished bedrock in northern Europe (formerly interpreted as relics of catastrophic floods) began to be understood as revealing the former presence of a large ice cap there. When Agassiz, a convert to the theory, came to America in 1846 he found similar evidence in New England. The glacial theory and the notion that there had been several worldwide ice ages seems to have been generally accepted by the 1870s.

1774, "glacier humped like a hill;" 1820 as "detached piece of a glacier or ice pack at sea," partial loan-translation of Dutch ijsberg, literally "ice mountain," from ijs "ice" (see ice (n.)) + berg "mountain" (from PIE root *bhergh- (2) "high," with derivatives referring to hills and hill-forts.). Similar formation in Norwegian isberg, Danish isbjerg.

Earlier English terms were sea-hill (1690s), island of ice (1610s). Phrase tip of the iceberg in a figurative sense (in allusion to most of it being unseen underwater) first recorded 1962. Iceberg lettuce attested from 1893, apparently originally a trade name.

"obstructed by ice; frozen in; surrounded or hemmed in by ice, so as to prevent progress or approach," 1650s, from ice (n.) + bound (adj.1).

also icebox, 1839, "an ice chest," later "the small compartment in a refrigerator containing the ice," from ice (n.) + box (n.).

"a general or continuous permanent covering of a certain area of land, whether large or small, with snow or ice, especially in the arctic regions," 1859 in geology, from ice (n.) + an extended sense of cap (n.).

1941, originally a film title, from ice (n.) + a punning play on escapade.

1839, originally a wooden chest lined with zinc, from ice (n.) + chest (n.).