There's a town on a north-facing slope near Barcelona called Gelida. A local businessman told me that it owes its name to the Moors, but that seems unlikely.

Really interesting. Gelido is a very common Italian word (I translate icy with gelido), while gelid is a rare word in English - never thought about that.

we have gélido in spanish, but it´s archaic and not the average word you use: pretty much the same register as gelid as far as I can tell.

I miss that sort of epiphany in English (I have forsworn reading English apart from essential work stuff for the next year,and though i am frequently hit with new words in Spanish there are still too many of them for it to be a pleasure, especially getting used to the differences between European and American spanish)

Oh and a PS, I presume you know the germanic equivalent which is "rime" meaning frost.

I only knew "frío" in Spanish and no, I had never come across "rime" ("givre" in French) so thanks a lot for sharing!

FWIW, "gélido" is perhaps not a everyday word, but I wouldn't call it archaic. If you use it in a casual conversation no one is going to have trouble understanding it.