Other forms: rimes
Rime is a white frost that coats surfaces. Rime on the branches, thick rime, rime ice.
It is not the same as ordinary frost: rime forms when freezing fog blows against something and freezes on contact, building up on the windward side. Aircraft icing of exactly this kind is a serious hazard.
1nounrimeA white frost that coats surfaces.
“In the morning, every twig and fence post was white with rime.”
rime is a frost.
Old English hrim means frost, from a Germanic root; the spelling matching rhyme is a coincidence.
Proto-Indo-European
*krey- — to graze, touch; to streak
Proto-Germanic
*hrīmą
Proto-West Germanic
*hrīm — rime; hoar frost
Old English
hrīm — frost
Middle English
rim
English, today
rime
Built from
The noun is derived from Middle English rim, rime, rym, ryme (“hoar frost; rime”), from Old English hrīm (“frost”), from Proto-West Germanic hrīm (“rime; hoar frost”), from Proto-Germanic hrīmą North Germanic, hrīmô (“rime; hoar frost”), probably from Proto-Indo-European krey- (“to graze, touch; to streak”). The verb is derived from the noun. (The Old English equivalent, which did not survive into modern English, was behrīman.) 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA