play serenity carr next to an illustration of a refrigerator with the letter d in it

Why is there a 'd' in 'fridge' but not in 'refrigerator'?

Thawing one of the mysteries of English


English sometimes does not follow the path you expect. Like when refrigerator is shortened to fridge. Serenity Carr explains how the latter ended up spelled the way it is.

Transcript

Why is there a D in fridge but not in refrigerator? As a general rule, a G at the end of a word sounds like the G in flag and hog. Anywhere else in a word, it can sound like either gesture or forget. The G in refrigerator follows this rule. If we shortened refrigerator to fridge we're left with F-R-I-G. But wouldn't that rhyme with sprig? The spelling with a D most likely came into use because English speakers wanted it to follow the pattern of other familiar words, like bridge, ridge and smidge.

Up next

play serenity carr next to an illustration of a refrigerator with the letter d in it
Why is there a 'd' in 'fridge' but not in 'refrigerator'?

 

Thawing one of the mysteries of English

play video soup vs soop
An Abbreviated History of American English Spelling

 

Soop, wimmen, and headake did not make the cut

play video literally
Literally

 

A word that (literally) drives people nuts

play video ghost words
How a Ghost Word Appeared in the Dictionary

 

An imaginary word that snuck into the dictionary

play mrs malaprop
What is a malaprop?

 

We'll tell you all the perpendiculars

play video affect vs effect
Affect vs. Effect

 

Here's the lowdown on what may be the most confusing pair of words in the English language.

play video websters video of 1864
Webster's Dictionary of 1864

 

The landmark edition that transformed the way dictionaries are made.