Re: Refrigerator

On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:53:47 -0400, Roland Hutchinson
<my.spamtrap@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

>Bob Cunningham wrote:
>
>> 
>> (Crossposted to alt.usage.english.)
>> 
>>  On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:22:08 +0100, Frederick Williams
>> <frederick.williams2@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote [in alt.languages.english]:
>> 
>>>What is the significance of the prefix "re" in the word "refrigerator"?
>> 
>> As you probably know, the prefix "re-" occurs in quite a few English
>> words where its meanings of "again, back" or "away" don't seem to
>> offer a satisfactory reason.
>> 
>> The _New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary_ (_NSOED_) has one
>> definition of "re-" that seems applicable to its use in "refrigerate":
>> 
>>    also w. frequent(ative). or intensive force, as in
>>    redouble, redound, regard, research.
>> 
>> I suppose the prefix "re-" could be an intensifier in "refrigerate".
>> 
>> The etymology in _NSOED_ says "refrigerate" comes from a Latin word
>> "refrigeratus", so it would seem possibly more appropriate to ask what
>> meanings the prefix "re-" can have in Latin than in English.  However,
>> the entry "re-" in _The Chambers Murray Latin-English Dictionary_
>> (1976) has mostly the same meanings I find for the English "re-" in
>> _NSOED_, and no meaning that seems to clarify its use in
>> "refrigerate".
>> 
>> Comments from Latin scholars would be appreciated.
>
>I think it is the same "re-" as in "refried beans" -- not "fried again",
>but "thoroughly fried" -- a calque (or something very much like one) of
>Mexican Spanish "refritos", which gets us one step closer to the Latin,
at
>any rate.
 
That's quite interesting, and I don't doubt that you're right, but I
wondered about "refried beans" and looked it up in a couple of
dictionaries.  For example, the CD version of _Webster's Third New
International Dictionary_ says

    : frijoles cooked with seasonings, fried, then mashed and 
    fried again

And the _New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary_ has 

    refry /ri:"frVI/ v.t.M20. 
    [f. RE- + FRY v.] 
    Fry again. Chiefly in refried beans [tr. Sp. frijoles 
    refritos] (orig. US), pinto beans boiled and fried in 
    advance and refried when required.

I wonder if that's a case of folk etymology, erroneously deducing the
etymology from analysis of the phrase.

At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refried_beans
it says, among other
things,

    The English term "refried", often interpreted as "fried 
    again", is a mistranslation of the Spanish word "refrito". 
    The prefix "re-" is commonly used in Mexican dialects to 
    add emphasis to words. The beans are fried only once and 
    the term refrito is actually a reference to overfrying 
    the bean paste so that it dries out to retain a shape for 
    serving purposes

I sense a connection between those remarks and a dictionary saying
that English "re-" can be an intensifier.  It would be comforting to
learn that the intensifying "re-" in Spanish came from a "re-" with
the same meaning in Latin.

Incidentally, I find it interesting to meditate on the possibility
that some cooks have been deceived by the popular misconception and
are actually preparing refried beans by frying and frying again.
-- 
Sparky
Western American English