Weekly Word: Frigorific
Yup, frigorific really is a word. It means “causing or producing cold”.
An article from World Wide Words reports that “the most common appearance of frigorific is in that characteristically American phenomenon, the spelling bee.” Aside from that, this rare word is usually reserved for scientific jargon; for example, Wikipedia has an entry about frigorific mixtures, combinations of “chemicals that achieve an equilibrium temperature independent of the temperature that the two chemicals started at.”
But when I see the word, I keep thinking it says fridge-orific. Sounds more like a cheesy exclamation about how terrific a refrigerator is. By the way, the words frigorific and refrigerator both come from the Latin root frigus, meaning (yes, you guessed it!) cold.
January 9th, 2009
in portuguese frigorifico means freezer or refrigerator
January 12th, 2009
Oh, cool! That’s a perfect example. I studied Spanish for a while, but I forget how to say refrigerator in Spanish… I bet it’s very similar.
January 13th, 2009
nevera means refeigerator in spanish i think…
do looking again to my first post i get confused now. as i understand the freezer object it’s common used for freezer (congelador in portuguese) and refigerator/cooler (frigorifico in portuguese)… or not since any “frigorifico” has an small “congelador” inside…
same thing anyway the root is frigus…
as for nevera: i think it rooted in snow! try to track it
8p
August 24th, 2010
Sorry to revive a dead thread, but the spanish word for refrigerator is actually heladera (ay lah DAY rah) probably from the root hielo (YAY lo) (ice).