Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
If that was true, then it'd be "Hay Mardge, grab me..."
We do insert a soft d sound into words like that.
So I looked it up and got the answer from Merriam Webster. In a too-late-didn't-read version:
It was originally spelled FRIG. But the latin (where the word refrigerator came from) pronunciation would require a hard G, such as in dog, or big. Adding an e would've softened the G, but created a long-I, frige, rhyming with oblige.
Making it a dge solved the problem. And so it is now pronounced like dodge and bridge.
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The root word in “refrigerator” is “frigid,” not “fridgid.” At the time “refrigerator” was invented, the word “frig” had been much used in some circles for many centuries, but it rhymed with “dig.” Adding a D and an E to “frig” made it sound like “frigid.”
[“The word "frig" as a verb (meaning to move about rapidly, rub, or chafe) is first recorded in the Middle English period (1150-1500). As a noun, the earliest known use is in the late 1700s, with evidence from around 1786.” The word comes from Latin. It was used as a synonym for male or female masturbation. The related present participle “frigging” got transformed by the barely literate into “fricking.” They saw it as a sanitized version of another F word. I urge you to not say “fricking” ever, but feel free to say “fridge” whenever it’s appropriate.]