Covered with or consisting of ice; extremely cold. Can also describe a cold, unfriendly manner or attitude.
From Old English 'isig' meaning covered with ice, derived from 'is' (ice) plus the suffix '-ig' forming adjectives. The figurative sense of coldness in manner developed in Middle English, extending the physical coldness to emotional coldness.
The word 'icy' demonstrates how physical sensations become metaphors for emotions across cultures—cold temperatures universally suggest emotional distance or hostility. Interestingly, the transition from literal to figurative happened remarkably early in English, showing how fundamental this metaphor is to human thinking.
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