On Fri, Aug 5, 2016 at 11:08 AM, SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name> wrote:
Outside of everyday usage, English uses ice to refer to any substance that is normally thought of as non-solid when it has been made solid. We use ice instead of some other word because water is the most common substance that we regularly see become solid; we just apply that word to other substances.
English speakers use it, incorrectly, that way. It's a slang, albeit very common slang. You may use that slang, but some people try to avoid it.
Scientists use it this way. For example, ammonia ice.
Many dictionaries
give both definitions.
When you have watched someone pick up a chunk of "dry ice" and try to eat it, thinking it's normal ice, you quickly learn not to use "ice" outside of the water kind.
Dry ice is another example of using ice to refer
to something other than solid water.
-- SuStel http://trimboli.name