Ice-brook

A sword of ice-brook temper. Of the very best quality. The Spaniards used to plunge their swords and other weapons, while hot from the forge, into the brook Salo [Xalon], near Bilbilis, in Celtiberia, to harden them. The water of this brook is very cold.

“It is a sword of Spain, the ice-brook temper.”

Shakespeare: Othello, v. 2.

“Sævo Bilbilin opʹtimam metallo

Et ferro Platʹeam suo sonantem

Quam fluctu tenui sed inquieʹto

Armoʹrum Salo temperaʹtor ambit.”

Martial.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.