Skip to main content

orthography - Why is "fridge" spelt with a 'd' but "refrigeration" spelt without one?


The question is in the title, why does the word, refrigeration not have a 'd' in it when fridge does?



Answer



Most sources suggest that the term was an alteration of frig, probably because of the influence of the famous brand 'Frigidaire' whose sound matches with the second syllable of 'refrigerator'


Fridge: also frig:



  • Colloq. abbrev. of refrigerator.




  • The proprietary name Frigidaire may also have contributed to the currency of the shortened form frig. Cf. also frigerator in D.A. (quots. 1886, 1909).



Early usage examples:





  • 1926 E. F. Spanner Broken Trident xvi. 181 Best part of our stuff here is chilled, and with no 'frig plant working, the mercury will climb like a rocket.




  • 1935 C. Brooks Frame-Up xix. 243 Do you mean that you keep a dead body in a fridge waiting for the right moment to bring her out?




  • 1939 M. Dickens One Pair of Hands xii. 198 Your frig is out of order and the trifle hasn't got cold.




  • 1946 News Chron. 25 Feb. 3/7 (heading) A Communal ‘Frig.’ with 300 Lockers.




  • 1955 G. Greene Quiet American 90 We haven't a frig—we send out for ice. 1960





Fridge (n.) :




  • shortened and altered form of refrigerator, 1926, an unusual way of word-formation in English; perhaps influenced by Frigidaire (1919) , name of a popular early brand of self-contained automatically operated iceless refrigerator (Frigidaire Corporation, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.), a name suggesting Latin frigidarium "a cooling room in a bath." Frigerator as a colloquial shortening is attested by 1886. (Etymonline)



From Grammarphobia:





  • We can’t tell from the published examples in the OED (or some earlier ones in Google Books) who originated the “frig” and “fridge” spellings. But we can speculate about why “fridge” has become the dominant spelling.




  • First of all, the natural pronunciation of “fridge” matches the way the second syllable sounds in “refrigerator.”




  • Although “frig” is pronounced the same way as “fridge” when it means a refrigerator, the natural pronunciation of “frig” would be like that of the naughty verb we mentioned above.




  • Our guess is that English speakers generally prefer the “fridge” spelling because they instinctively pronounce it the way the letters f-r-i-g sound in “refrigerator.”





enter image description here


1922 Frigidaire "iceless" refrigerator newspaper ad.


Edit:


The term frigid, though related to 'cold', does not appear to have influenced 'fridge' spelling:




  • 1620s, "intensely cold," from Latin frigidus "cold, chill, cool," figuratively "indifferent," also "flat, dull, trivial," The meaning "wanting in sexual heat" is attested from 1650s, originally of males.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...
Post a Comment
Read more