freezer

Etymology

It is formed from English freeze + -er.^[2][3][4][5] The verb freeze is Middle English fresen, from Old English frēosan (“to turn to ice”),^[6][3] from the root Proto-Indo-European *preus- (“to freeze; to burn”).^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Anything that freezes: 1833, in T. Hood's Comic Annual.^[2] The earlier OED dated this sense from 1845.^[7]

Semantic evolution

As the name of a device the word was first used in ice-cream making: Etymonline dates it from 1847 as a large tin can used to make ice cream, and the OED's first quotation for a freezing machine is from the same year, in Missouri.^[3][2] Merriam-Webster dates the sense "one that freezes or keeps cool", including a hand-operated ice-cream machine, to 1843.^[8][9] Other 19th-century uses were technical or regional: a punch used in chasing metal to give a frosted ground (1887) and, in New Zealand and Australia, a sheep bred to be exported as frozen mutton (1889).^[2][4][10] As a household appliance it dates from 1945, and freezer burn from 1929.^[3] Collins notes that freezer was formerly also a name for the refrigerator.^[11] In slang it has meant a snub (from the 1820s) and, in Australia and the United States, a prison (from about 1930).^[12]

Timeline

• 1821–26 – slang, a snub.^[12]
• 1833 – anything that freezes.^[2]
• 1843 – a device that freezes, an ice-cream freezer (Merriam-Webster's date).^[8]
• 1847 – a machine for freezing.^[2][3]
• 1887 – a chasing punch for a frosted ground.^[2]
• 1889 – New Zealand, a sheep bred for export as frozen meat.^[2]
• 1929 – freezer burn.^[3]
• 1945 – a household freezer.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An insulated cabinet, compartment or room kept below freezing point, for freezing food and storing it frozen; a deep freeze.^[11][8][13]
2. A machine for making ice cream.^[8][3]
3. (Australia and New Zealand) An animal, especially a sheep, bred to be slaughtered and exported as frozen meat.^{[2][4][14][15]}
4. A punch used in chasing metal to give a frosted ground.^[2][4]
5. (slang) A prison.^[12]

Word family

• deepfreeze
• refrigerator-freezer
• freezer burn

Related words

• freeze
• frost

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Morris, Edward E. (1898), Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages, London: Macmillan
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
14. ^ Deverson, Tony; Kennedy, Graeme, eds. (2005), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, Auckland: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Moore, Bruce, ed. (2004), The Australian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., Melbourne: Oxford University Press