ice box, fridge, refrigerator, blinky

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Sun Apr 28 12:11:19 UTC 2013


As I once reported here, I *always* say "icebox," at least for the thing in
the kitchen.

JL


On Sun, Apr 28, 2013 at 12:15 AM, David K. Barnhart <dbarnhart at highlands.com
> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "David K. Barnhart" <dbarnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM>
> Subject:      ice box, fridge, refrigerator, blinky
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I found the following (largely unrelated) in DHS:
>
>
>
> 1.      An emotionally unresponsive person, esp a woman.
>
> 2.      A morgue.
>
> 3.      a. An isolation cell.
>
> b. a prison.
>
>
>
> And, from DARE:
>
>
>
> 1.      also _ice chest_.  A gas or electric refrigerator (dated 1950 in
> its
> sitations). ..
>
>
>
> Entries also for:
>
> icebox is open
>
> icebox melon
>
> icebox pickle
>
> icebox tomato
>
>
>
> MY USEGE (I'll be 72 in a couple of weeks):
>
>
>
> My mom and dad both used _icebox_ (later _fridge_).  I still catch myself
> saying _icebox_ from time to time, though Mom and Dad used it to the end.
> They were born in 1908 and 1900 respectively.  I was born in 1941 in the
> Midwest.  Dad was from Missouri/Kansas and Mom from Wisconsin.  They had a
> house in Westchester (North of NYC)-- in the wall of the kitchen pantry was
> a small door for depositing ice for the icebox.  We received milk on the
> back stoop into the early '60's, sometimes in the summer with a chunk of
> ice
> to keep the milk from turning sour (Or, as my parents would say, _going
> blinky_).
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> David
>
> Barnhart at highlands.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
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------------------------------------------------------------
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