refrigeration

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English refrygeracion,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French refrigeration, also refrigeracion, and directly borrowed from Latin refrīgerātiō (“a cooling”),^{[4][5][3][6][2]} from refrīgerō (“to cool down”),^[4][5][6] which is formed from re- (“back, again”) and frīgerō (“to make cool”), from frīgus (“cold”), the source of frigid.^[5] The Middle French word is recorded in a medical context in 1478, and earlier, before 1389, in the figurative sense of consolation.^[4] The OED compares refrigeración, refrigeração and refrigerazione.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of cooling or freezing something: in George Ripley's Compend of Alchemy, written in 1471.^[4] Etymonline dates the word to the late 15th century, first in alchemy.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From 1502 it meant the refreshing or cooling of the blood or spirits, a sense obsolete by 1707,^[4][6] and since 1828 the deliberate cooling of the body or part of it in medical treatment.^[4][6][2] Geologists used it from 1794 for the gradual cooling of the earth or its climate.^[4][6] Johnson (1755) defined it as the act of cooling or the state of being cooled.^[7] The modern sense, the artificial production of low temperatures, especially to preserve food, is recorded from 1850, in a United States patent,^[4] and Etymonline dates the freezing of provisions to preserve them to 1868.^[5]

Timeline

• 1471 – the action of cooling or freezing something, in alchemy.^[4][5]
• 1502 – the cooling of the blood or spirits (obsolete by 1707).^[4]
• 1794 – in geology, the gradual cooling of the earth or its climate.^[4][6]
• 1828 – in medicine, cooling of the body for treatment.^[4]
• 1850 – the artificial production of low temperatures, especially to preserve food.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The cooling or freezing of food and other perishables to keep them fresh.^[2][4]
2. The production of low temperatures by artificial means, as in a refrigerator.^[4][2]
3. (medicine) The deliberate lowering of the temperature of the body or a part of it, as in treatment or surgery.^[2][4][6]
4. The action of cooling something, or the state of being cooled.^[4][6][7]
5. (geology) The gradual natural cooling of the earth.^[4][6]

Related words

• refrigerate
• refrigerator
• frigid

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.