Meanings
- uncountableA hypothetical fluid medium of cold, in analogy to caloric.
The frigoric which is rendered latent in water, on its becoming ice, can be extricated or liberated in very amusing ways, by various frigorific mixtures.
1845, Edward King, Bliss not riches2 more examples
It is a fact, that any liquid, (perhaps I might have said, any species of matter,) whilst at a temperature higher than that at which it attains its greatest density, decreases in volume as it absorbs frigoric.
1815 April, K., “On Caloric and Frigoric”, in The Monthly Magazine, volume 35, page 213If, as was widely believed at the time, heat was a fluid, called caloric, which flowed from hot bodies to colder ones, then it was reasonable to suppose that cold was also a fluid, "frigoric," which flowed from cold bodies to warmer ones.
1996, The Grolier Library of Science Biographies
Cite this entry
frigoric. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/frigoric
“frigoric.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/frigoric. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “frigoric,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/frigoric.
Source: frigoric on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.