different between wintry vs frosty

English

Alternative forms

• wintery

Etymology

From Old English wintrig. Also constructed from winter +? -y.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?w?nt(?)??/
• (General American) enPR: w?n?t(?-)r?, IPA^(key): /?w?nt(?)?i/, [?w???(?)?i]
• Rhymes: -?nt?i
• Hyphenation: win?try

Adjective

wintry (comparative wintrier, superlative wintriest)

1. Suggestive or characteristic of winter; cold, stormy.

   wintry weather

2. Of precipitation, containing sleet or snow.

   It will be cloudy overnight, with outbreaks of heavy rain at times. The rain may turn wintry over higher ground.

3. Aged, white-haired.
4. Chilling, cheerless.
   • 1934, Frank Richards, The Magnet, The Bounder's Folly

     He reached the old ruins at last, dim masses of moss-grown masonry in the glimmer of the wintry starlight.

   a wintry remark

Synonyms

• (suggestive or characteristic of winter): brumal, hibernal, hiemal

Derived terms

Translations

References

• wintry at OneLook Dictionary Search
• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

English

Etymology

From Middle English frosty, forsty, from Old English forsti?, fyrsti? (“frosty”), from Proto-West Germanic *frostag, *frust?g, equivalent to frost +? -y. Cognate with West Frisian froastich (“frosty”), Dutch vorstig (“frosty”), German Low German fröstig (“frosty”), German frostig (“frosty”), Swedish frostig (“frosty”). Compare also Saterland Frisian froasterch (“frosty”), German Low German frösterg (“frosty”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?sti

Adjective

frosty (comparative frostier, superlative frostiest)

1. Cold, chilly.

   The air was frosty; I could see my breath and walked quickly with my hands in my pockets.

   I'd like a frosty milkshake.

2. Having frost on it.

   The frosty pumpkin is the sign of the end of the growing season, soon the greenery will wither and harvest end for the year.

3. (figuratively) Having an aloof or inhospitable manner.

   After the divorce, she was civil but frosty to her ex.

Translations

Derived terms

• frosty one
• stay frosty

Middle English

Alternative forms

• frosti, forsty

Etymology

From Old English forsti?, from Proto-West Germanic *frostag, equivalent to frost +? -y. Compare Old English fyrsti?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fr?sti?/, /?f?rsti?/

Adjective

frosty

1. Cold, freezing, frosty; being or experiencing cold.
2. (rare) White (of a beard)

Descendants

• English: frosty
• Scots: frosty

References

• “frost?, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-11-02.