Ice block or iced block

An ice naturally melts into ice water, not eyes water – forget the sound relationship. And forget that phonemic frolicsomeness too. Ice water is iced water because the ‘ed’ at the back of ice does not steer the meaning from chilled water or water made cold in a refrigerator or by adding some ice to it. Water ice is a sorbet (a combination of water, sugar and fruit juice all frozen up) usually eaten as a dessert.

Ice is a piece, a block of frozen carbon dioxide. It is also methamphetamine, an illegal drug often smoked. Ice is a stolen merchandise, jewelry or diamond. You ice something when you make it certain, like you could score a point at the closing moments of a game. That is when you ice the game. When you ice a person, you kill them.

However, it is apodictically ascertained that there is no such expression as iced block. There is a block of ice, there is an ice, there is a block, there is even an iceblock, but there is no iced block. The adjective ‘iced’ is never used to modify ‘block’ because it is logically believed that ‘block’ refers to an ice of block (in this instance). A block of ice is already ‘iced,’ there is therefore no need qualifying ‘block’ with ‘iced.’ And please don’t forget that the word ‘block’ is not peculiar to ice alone; it is often stretched to accommodate other shades of meaning depending on the words that surround it. If you are to build a house, you would need a lot of blocks. This time, the blocks are made of water, sand, and cement or other available, building-friendly materials.

Iceblock hence, is ‘a piece of flavoured ice on a stick ‘(Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary). In Australian English, it is called ice-lolly or iceblock. New Zealand English calls it iceblock. Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary says it’s ‘a sweet piece of ice with a fruit flavour on a small stick. It is known as popsicle in British and American Englishes. It is informally called lolly.

You browse through many Lagos streets hoping to get some iceblock. In the frontage of most of the shops, you see short adverts on flat surfaces, ‘buy your iced block here,’ ‘blocks are sold here,’ ‘come in for your ice block,’ etc. Irrespective of the chaotic advertorial language, you promptly call at a shop and ask for iceblock only for the seller to bring out a big block of ice. That’s where you see daylight that people just muddle everything together here, and that for them iceblock is not some flavoured ice on a stick but a pure block of ice.

Written by Omidire Idowu.

Omidire, Idowu Joshua is a writer, an editor, proofreader and literary agent. Get him at noblelifeliver@gmail.com