# Etymology of 'refrigerator' vs. 'fridge'

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-refrigerator-vs-fridge/89622>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 25, 2001, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-refrigerator-vs-fridge/89622 "2001-10-25T19:42:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jimbrowski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9a140/32.png) [@Jimbrowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimbrowski)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-refrigerator-vs-fridge/89622/1 "2001-10-25T19:42:58Z")

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This is probably really lame, but…

Why does the diminutive of ‘refrigerator’ gain a ‘d’ to become ‘fridge’?

Clearly the origin is ‘frigid’, meaning ‘cold’. (A ‘frigerator’ would therefore be something that made other things cold, a ‘re-frigerator’ would be something that made other things, that had been cold at one time, cold again.)

I know an early refrigerator (the very first retail model?) was named the “Frigidaire”. (I suspect a play on words: the suffix “-aire” vs. “frigid air” which is what the appliance actually produced.)

None of these examples contain the letter ‘d’ before the ‘g’, as in “fridge”.

How come?

In English we have similar sounding words: “ledge”, “fudge”, “bridge”, etc. all with the ‘d’ before the ‘g’.

Did the marketing guru’s decide to spell “fridge” the same way, because spelling it “frige” in (American) English doesn’t really produce the same sound as if you truncated “re-” and “-rator” from the original.

Did I answer my own question? I hope not, since I was hoping for a much more complicated plot (perhaps involving conspiracy, corporate espionage, etc.).

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**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-refrigerator-vs-fridge/89622/2 "2001-10-25T20:30:23Z")

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No conspiracies, I’m afraid.

Fridge justs looks/sounds like bridge and ridge.

It was probably not marketing types who coined “fridge”, anyway, but novelists and newspaper columnists. Fridge was a fairly natural shortened form of refrigerator, but it would have been spoken before it was spelled. Writers attempting to mimic sppech on paper would have most likely chosen the speeling that they thought would most easily convey the sound.

(Chevrolet went through the same sort of thing. There are a lot of old printed stories that mention Chevvie, Chevie, and Chevy–I even saw Shevvie, once. It was not standardized in the lexicon until Chevrolet introduced the Chevy II in the early 1960s, thus putting their stamp of approval on one particular spelling.)

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**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2001, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-refrigerator-vs-fridge/89622/3 "2001-10-25T20:54:46Z")

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_Frigidaire_ was the most popular consumer refrigerator.

According to this [site,](http://www.maineantiquedigest.com/articles/frid1000.htm)

> [@](#):
>
> In 1915 inventor Alfred Mellowes devised the first self-contained electric refrigerator for the home in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He called it the Guardian Frigerator, and it was the predecessor to the Frigidaire refrigerator brand.