An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

An extended mass of ice formed from snow falling and accumulating over the years and moving very slowly, either descending from high mountains, as in valley glaciers, or moving outward from centers of accumulation, as in continental glaciers (Dictionary.com).

From Fr. glacier, from O.Fr. glace "ice," from V.L. glacia, from L. glacies "ice," probably from PIE root *gel-, → cold.

Yaxzâr, from yax, → ice, + -zâr suffix denoting profusion and abundance, as in šurezâr "infertile, salty ground; nitrous earth," xoškzâr "arid land," kârzâr "a field of battle; combat," marqzâr "a place abounding with the grass," and so forth.

The breaking off of chunks of ice at the terminus, or end, of a glacier. Ice breaks because the forward motion of a glacier makes the terminus unstable. Ice or glacier calving is the formal name for the birth of an → iceberg.

→ glacier; → calve.