Plural of icicle; long, thin pointed pieces of ice that form when water drips and freezes, usually hanging from roofs or branches.
From Old English 'is' (ice) combined with an obsolete diminutive suffix. The word originally meant simply 'ice' but acquired the meaning of ice spikes through figurative extension.
Icicles form in a race between gravity and freezing—each water drop adds layers of ice, and the pointy shape happens because ice freezes fastest on the outside edges where cold air touches it first!
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