refrigeratio

Forms

refrīgerātiō f (genitive refrīgerātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin refrīgerō + -tiō, a noun of action from the verb meaning “to cool down”.^[2][1][3] The verb itself is built on frīgus (“cold”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Cicero, in the Cato Maior, has the old speaker say that he enjoys being cooled in summer just as he enjoys sun or a fire in winter, the sense of a cooling of the body.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

In Classical Latin it meant the act of cooling or the coolness itself: Columella speaks of a traveller seeking the coolness of a breeze, and Vitruvius of the cooling of the sky.^[5][6][3] The OLD defines it as the faculty or process of cooling.^[2] Vegetius used it figuratively for the relief or mitigation of a disease.^[5][7]

Medieval writers in Britain used it for cooling in medicine, with reference to bodily heat, and transferred it to the calming of emotions.^[8] English borrowed it in the late 15th century as refrigeration, at first in alchemy.^[4]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for being cooled in summer.^[3][9]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius speaks of the cooling of the sky.^[5][9]
• 1st century AD – Columella writes of the coolness of a breeze.^[5][9]
• c. 400 AD – Vegetius uses it for the relief of a disease.^[5][9]
• late 15th century – Borrowed into English as refrigeration.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cooling, the process or effect of making cool.^[2][5]
2. Coolness, freshness.^[5][7][1]
3. (figurative) Relief or mitigation, especially of a disease.^[5][7][10]
4. (Medieval Latin) A calming of strong feeling.^[8]

Related words

• English refrigeration

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
10. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier