Phred wrote on 16 May 2007 in rec.food.cooking
> In article >, Charlene
> Charette > wrote:
> >Steve Wertz wrote:
> >> On 12 May 2007 17:25:15 -0700, wrote:
> >>
> >>>There is no d in refrigerate.
> >>
> >> But there is in 'fridge'. Go figure.
> >
> >That's because "fridge" comes from "Frigidaire" not "refrigerator".
>
> At first I thought this was nonsense, but I can see the point:
>
> If one assumes the pronunciation of "Frigidaire" for the abridged
> version [nominally "Frig"] then it would have to be spelt "fridge".
>
> Incidentally, I hadn't realised that Frigidaire developed the original
> self-contained refrigerators. The brand name seemed to come later
> than others here in Oz as far as I recall. But that may be a
> consequence of our old "Commonwealth trade preferences" whereby damn
> nearly everything (except decent cars) came from Pommieland for the
> first half century or more of "Australia". I can still recall my
> surprise at age 12 or 13 when reading that something like 50% of the
> world's economy was based in the USA at that time -- and about the
> only US products we saw here then were motor vehicles.
>
> Cheers, Phred.
>
In the begining Frigidaire's biggest selling point was it's
introducing/inventing the shelves on the door. That is what made them a
leader in the development of fridges...
Somewhat like skill saw and circular saw or kleenex and facial tissue.
Their market share also affected North American English.