iced tea

[Laurence Horn]

Nobody in this discussion (unless it escaped my notice) brought up the
parallel with "ice cream".  This was a shibboleth for prescriptivists in
the 19th century (sorry I don't have the relevant dates or
publications--Dennis Baron probably does) who insisted that the only
logical spelling, and presumably pronunciation, was "iced cream".  I see
the gradual penetration of "ice tea" as following a similar route, even if
"iced tea" is still the prevailing written form.  Notice too that with
"ice(d) cream" there would have been less of a phonological motivation for
the reanalysis.

Larry