Date:  Sun, 1 Oct 1995 21:41:28 EDT

From:  Larry Horn <LHORN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]YALEVM.CIS.YALE.EDU>

Subject: Re: icebox



Let me add some additional evidence for Kate Catmull's suspicion...



>Wouldn't the distribution be by age rather than geography? My mother (b.

>1930, Minnesota) used "icebox" somewhat more often than "refrigerator" or

>"fridge," and I (b. 1958, Utah) mimicked her usage when I was a child. Now

>I almost ever hear "icebox," and I never use it.



'Icebox' was used in our house when I was growing up in New York City (b.

1945) and I too used it standardly at the time but less and less frequently

since then. My wife (b. 1944), who grew up in Connecticut, reports the same

sequence. It's beginning to look like the gradual disappearance of 'icebox'

is a national, rather than regional, trend. We MAY have also used

'frigidaire' as a generic, but my memory is unclear on that one.



 Larry