Icebox or Refrigerator?

Question

There is an ongoing debate between myself and my husband. He insists that the refrigerator is called and should be called an icebox. I say the refrigerator is called, well, a refrigerator. I realize that if someone does say icebox, they are most likely talking about a refrigerator, but technically a refrigerator is a refrigerator, not an icebox. Stores don't have icebox sales; they have refrigerator sales and that iceboxes are a thing of the past - we don't have ice delivered to our fridge to keep the items cold. I would like your two cents - is icebox or refrigerator/fridge??

Answer 1

I agree. Icebox can be confused as one of those coolers that holds ice.

Answer 2

Icebox is a term from days gone by, days before electric powered refrigeration was possible. Ice men delivered ice to your door. You had a card you could put in the window telling him how much ice you needed. People today who call it an ice box are either very old, or are using the word for it that their parents used when they were growing up. My parents called the refrigerator the "icebox" and so do I today. I know the difference, but that is what I am used to calling the device. Technically, today it is a refrigerator/fridge. To me, it will always be the ice box. My children call it the ice box as well because of the fact that is what we called it when they were young, and I imagine my grandchildren will as well.

Answer 3

Wow! Sounds like you are married to my husband's twin! Well, you are right. An icebox is something that you put ice in to keep food cold. A refrigerator is cooled with a coolant such as freon. The following info is from Wikipedia:

A refrigerator (often called a "fridge" for short) is an appliance for the storage and preservation of perishable food. One compartment, referred to as a freezer, usually shares space in the unit with another compartment for cold temperatures maintained above freezing. The refrigerator is a relatively modern invention amongst kitchen appliances. It replaced the common icebox which had been a household item for almost a century and a half prior, and sometimes is still called by the name "icebox".

Commercial units, which go by many other names, were in use for almost 40 years prior to the common home models. The fact that they operated with toxic ammonia gas systems made them unsafe for home use. Practical household refrigerators were introduced in the 1920s and gained wider acceptance in the 1930s as prices fell and non-toxic, nonflammable synthetic refrigerants, such as Freon or R-12 refrigerants were introduced.

Not that I think you will convince him otherwise, but good luck on the debate!

Answer 4

Ice Box Refrigerator

Answer 5

Refrigerator

Answer 6

Refrigerator

Answer 7

Before refrigerators were invented, they used what they call an icebox, the reason being that it was a chest made of wood with a metal lined box inside that they filled with ice to keep it cold, hence the name icebox.

Answer 8

Refrigerator.

Answer 9

Refrigerator!

Answer 10

When I was growing up my parents and everybody else I knew always called it an icebox. It was a regular refrigerator though. Now I usually say "fridge."

Answer 11

it is a refrigerator, called that because it uses refrigerant in its cooling system. just like ice was used in an icebox