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frazil (FRAZ-uhl, FREY-zuhl, fruh-ZEEL) - n., ice crystals formed in water moving turbulently enough to prevent of a sheet of ice from forming.
As in a swift stream or rough seas (where it is also called lolly ice). It's kind of like a slurry of small, usually needle-shaped crystals and supercooled water. This is an Americanism borrowed in the late 1880s from Canadian French frasil or fraisil, from French fraisil, cinders, from Old French faisil, ultimately from Latin fax, torch -- which is rather a complete opposite sense, through a series of morphing meanings.
---L.
As in a swift stream or rough seas (where it is also called lolly ice). It's kind of like a slurry of small, usually needle-shaped crystals and supercooled water. This is an Americanism borrowed in the late 1880s from Canadian French frasil or fraisil, from French fraisil, cinders, from Old French faisil, ultimately from Latin fax, torch -- which is rather a complete opposite sense, through a series of morphing meanings.
---L.
