ickle

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪkəl

Etymology 1

From Middle English ikil, ykle, from Old English *ġicol, ġiċel (“icicle, ice”), from Proto-West Germanic *jekul, *jikil, from Proto-Germanic *jekulaz (“piece of ice”), diminutive of *jekô (“lump of ice”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁yeg-. Cognate with Low German Jäkel (“icicle”), Danish egel (“icicle”), Norwegian Bokmål jøkel (“glacier, icesheet”), Norwegian Nynorsk jøkle (“icicle”), Norwegian Nynorsk jøkul (“glacier, icicle”), Faroese jøkul (“glacier”), Icelandic jökull (“glacier”), Swedish jökel (“glacier”) and probably Albanian akull (“ice”) (Gheg okull).

Alternative forms

• eckle

Noun

ickle (plural ickles)

1. (dialectal) An icicle.

Derived terms

• icicle

Etymology 2

Childish pronunciation of little.

Adjective

ickle (comparative ickler, superlative icklest)

1. (childish, chiefly UK) Little. [from mid-19th c.]
   • 1917, Booth Tarkington, Seventeen:

     Izzum's ickle heart a-beatin' so floppity! Um's own mumsy make ums all right, um's p'eshus Flopit!

   • 1919, Punch:

     Wasums and didums, then? Was it a ickle birdie, then?

   • 1919, Punch:

     Did she try to hit her ickle bruzzer on his nosie-posie wiz a mug?

   • 1936, George Orwell, Keep the Aspidistra Flying:

     A Peke, the ickle angel pet, wiv his gweat big soulful eyes and his ickle black nosie — oh so ducky-duck!

Anagrams

• Celik, Elick, Leick