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Fridge is a reference to Frigidaire, the name of a/the manufacturer, not the refrigerator appliance.
Frigidaire Appliance Company is the US
consumer and
commercial home appliances brand subsidiary of
European parent company
Electrolux.
Frigidaire was founded as the
Guardian Frigerator Company in
Fort Wayne, Indiana, and developed the first self-contained
refrigerator, invented by Nathanniel B. Wales and Alfred Mellowes in 1916. In 1918,
William C. Durant, a founder of
General Motors, personally invested in the company and in 1919, it adopted the name Frigidaire.
[1]
The brand was so well known in the refrigeration field in the early-to-mid-1900s, that many Americans
called any refrigerator a
Frigidaire regardless of brand.
[2] In France, Quebec and some other French-speaking countries or areas, the word
Frigidaire is often in use as a synonym today. The name Frigidaire or its antecedent Frigerator may be the origin of the widely used English word
fridge, although more likely simply an abbreviation of refrigerator which is a word known to have been used as early as 1611.
[3][4][5]
From 1919 to 1979, the company was owned by
General Motors. During that period, it was first a subsidiary of
Delco-Light and was later an independent division based in
Dayton, Ohio. The division also manufactured the compressors for GM's cars that were equipped with air conditioning. While the company was owned by General Motors, its logo featured the phrase "Product of General Motors", and later renamed to "Home Environment Division of General Motors". Frigidaire was sold to the
White Sewing Machine Company in 1979, which in 1986 was purchased by
Electrolux, its current parent. The company claims firsts including: