12 year old stumps me with a vocabulary word, anyone help? :)

[TexasRifleman]

One of his words was "refrigerate".  Easy enough.

His question however was why it's RE frigerate. That means something was already frigerated.

Why don't we call them frigerators instead of RE frigerators?

I had no answer

[grislyatoms]

refrigeration 
1471, "act of cooling or freezing," from L. refrigerationem "mitigation of heat," especially in sickness, noun of action from refrigerare, from re- "again" + frigerare "make cool," from frigus (gen. frigoris) "cold." Specifically of "freezing provisions as a means of preserving them" from 1881. Refrigerator "cabinet for keeping food cool" is first recorded 1824, originally in the brewery trade, in place of earlier refrigeratory (1605).


from http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=r&p=7

Apparently, you are making the food cool once again, hence the re-.

[Sergeant Bob]

You should refrain (but don't you have to frain before you can refrain) from discussing word definitions with a 12 year old. 

Flect on that for a while.

[Phantom Warrior]

Main Entry:
    re?frig?er?ate Listen to the pronunciation of refrigerate
Pronunciation:
    \ri-ˈfri-jə-ˌrāt\
Function:
    transitive verb
Inflected Form(s):
    re?frig?er?at?ed; re?frig?er?at?ing
Etymology:
    Latin refrigeratus, past participle of refrigerare, from re- + frigerare to cool, from frigor-, frigus cold  more at frigid
Date:
    1534

: to make or keep cold or cool; specifically : to freeze or chill (as food) for preservation
 re?frig?er?a?tion Listen to the pronunciation of refrigeration \-ˌfri-jə-ˈrā-shən\ noun

Courtesty of the Merriam Webster definition here.

Merriam Webster seems to think differently.  If I'm reading this right, apparently it's from "refrigerare" which is Latin for "to cool."  I guess it's just a coincidence that it starts with re.  Maybe I'm mistaken.

I'm all for discussing word definitions and origins with a 12 year old (though I realize the last comment was tongue in cheek).  People complain about kids getting dumber, but how will they get smarter if you don't encourage them to ask questions.

It'll probably help to look it up.  I routinely look stuff up on Merriam Webster's website (m-w.com) and Wikipedia.  They are two of my most used engines in the Search Bar in Firefox. 

[grampster]

Eh...we called them Frigerators where I grew up.

[Tuco]

Eh...we called them Frigerators where I grew up.

Bah.  I bet you called it an icebox.

[Matthew Carberry]

Eh...we called them Frigerators where I grew up.

Bah.  I bet you called it an icebox.

Wait wait wait wait wait...

Y'all got's an icehouse inside yer cabin?  Liars. Next you'll be telling me ya moved the outhouse in thar too.

[never_retreat]

I always called it the fridge.
Thats simple enough for everyone.

[drewtam]

Maybe it has something to the cycle the working fluid goes through. Compressed to make it hot, flow through a heat exchanger, then throttled to be cool again.

[Scout26]

Then there's that other big ol' metal box that makes the food hot.  That's the Unfrigerator.

[Ex-MA Hole]

Why is it that the words inflamable and flamable mean the same thing?  I mean, it either flams, or it doesn't....


/George Carlin

[Modifiedbrowning]

How about deccelerate? To Accelerate is a change in speed.
How about overwhelm? Look up whelm.

English is a wonderful blend of the original German language and Latin and Greek. (plus other borrowed words (suave). If I remember why teaching correctly 'ole Bill Shakespeare was not above making up a word as he went along (which continues to this day, BLING BLING, y'all).

Look at Archeology, it's supposed to be Latin, but they add in they Archeologists names to many finds.

[Hawkmoon]

Eh...we called them Frigerators where I grew up.

We called them "ice boxes" where/when I grew up ...

[Hawkmoon]

Then there's the story of the on-the-street reporter who, at the turn of the millennium, went out looking for comments. His question was simple: What was the greatest invention of the last thousand years? But he kept getting answers like the telephone, or the computer, or open-heart surgery ... and he was looking for something  bit different.

Tired of asking ordinary people, he spied a wino and ent over to ask him the question.

"Why that's simple, son," said the wino. "The greatest invention of the last thousand years has to be the Thermos bottle."

Taken aback, the reporter started to get angry. "What's so great about a Thermos bottle, old man? All it does is keep hot things hot and cold things cold. What makes that so great?"

"Think about it, son, think about it," said the old man. "It keeps things hot in the winter, and it keeps things cold in the summer. How do it know?"

[grampster]

Ahhh, well....we did call it an ice box.  I thought most of you would be too young to know what I was talking about.    In fact The Iceman Cometh around in a horse drawn wagon.  He wore a large leather apron that had a padded leather shoulder piece upon which the ice block rested when he grabbed it with tongs and lugged it into my grandmother's house.

We had a coal bin and I had to stoke the coal furnace and haul ash, too.  Heat on demand in those days was going down the basement and stoking up the fire pot and adding coal and shaking out the ash and hauling that outside.  The labor warmed you up till the house warmed up.

The neighborhood milkman also sold eggs and cheese.  Most houses had a milk door by the side door.  Most houses had side doors in those days.  The milk came in bottles with a couple inches of (gasp) cream on the top.  You had to shake the bottles to mix in the cream.

It's very amusing to me to be able to remember in my rather short time on this earth to have witnessed such monumental changes in our lifestyle and culture; the tail end of rural America, the beginnings of suburban America, and now the gentrification of the old cities into cultural mecca's, supported by the urban sprawl of the baby boomers.

If we didn't have such a sorry bunch of politicians that interfere and obstruct everything within reach, we'd be seeing even better things.  The Boomers are the largest group of people in America and control the 2nd largest batch of wealth.  Their parents control the largest portion of America's wealth and that is being transferred to the Boomers as we sit here and click our mice.  So the largest transfer of wealth to the 2nd wealthiest group, the largest group of Americans is taking place.  The socialists and leftist are stumbling all over themselves to fail to understand the power of those economics by trying to redistribute it in wasteful confiscatory government programs rather than letting the market unleash itself. 

 

[CAnnoneer]

It is possible the "again" part refers to the way the fridge works: many modern fridges cycle to 0 degC and back from -20degC in the "freezer" compartment, to prevent frosting accretion. The other type keeps the temperature constant, but has to be completely defrosted periodically to remove the accretions.

[Modifiedbrowning]

Normality or Normalcy? Talk amongst yourselves.

[280plus]

Now I can't decide if I'm overwhelmed, underwhelmed or just plain old whelmed. 

 

[Matthew Carberry]

Now I can't decide if I'm overwhelmed, underwhelmed or just plain old whelmed. 

 

If you haven't ventured into White Plume Mountain you have no idea what "Whelm" is...

[griz]

You should refrain (but don't you have to frain before you can refrain) from discussing word definitions with a 12 year old. 

Flect on that for a while.

Great post   Thanks.

I gave up on trying to figure out english words after the time the reloading room burned down.  I assumed that inflammable was the opposite of flammable.

[Tallpine]

English is a wonderful blend of the original German language and Latin and Greek.

Plus considerable amounts of French (from the Normans) and Gaelic.

For example, "galore" comes from the Gaelic gu leor (plenty, enough).


This is why English has so many synonyms - there is a Anglo-Saxon and a French derived word for almost everything.

[K Frame]

This thread is completely volting, and quite pugnant, as well.

[Warhorse]

Grampster said:

[Ahhh, well....we did call it an ice box.  I thought most of you would be too young to know what I was talking about.    In fact The Iceman Cometh around in a horse drawn wagon.  He wore a large leather apron that had a padded leather shoulder piece upon which the ice block rested when he grabbed it with tongs and lugged it into my grandmother's house.

We had a coal bin and I had to stoke the coal furnace and haul ash, too.  Heat on demand in those days was going down the basement and stoking up the fire pot and adding coal and shaking out the ash and hauling that outside.  The labor warmed you up till the house warmed up.

The neighborhood milkman also sold eggs and cheese.  Most houses had a milk door by the side door.  Most houses had side doors in those days.  The milk came in bottles with a couple inches of (gasp) cream on the top.  You had to shake the bottles to mix in the cream.

It's very amusing to me to be able to remember in my rather short time on this earth to have witnessed such monumental changes in our lifestyle and culture; the tail end of rural America, the beginnings of suburban America, and now the gentrification of the old cities into cultural mecca's, supported by the urban sprawl of the baby boomers.

/quote]

Grampster, you are talking about the days of my youth, too! Been there, done that (or at least watched it)!

[Tallpine]

I had no answer

In other words, you were plussed.