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frigid

Adjective
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Very cold; icy. In older poetic usage, it can sound more elevated or formal than everyday speech.

Detailed Definition
In this poem, “frigid” describes the cold that the speaker feels in her husband’s absence. While the meaning is still understandable, it is a more literary and less common adjective than plain “cold,” so it may prompt a reader to pause.
Example
Example in poetry:
“His warmth such frigid colds did cause to melt” contrasts emotional warmth with icy cold; “The frigid zone” in Pope’s Essay on Man names a polar climate; Frost’s winter landscapes make frigid air a physical force; A contemporary line might read, “Frigid screens lit the sleepless train.”
Additional Notes
The phrase “frigid colds” uses a more literary adjective that some readers may not use often in modern speech.; Found in the poem, A Letter to her Husband, absent upon Publick employment by Anne Bradstreet
Also Known As
cold icy frosty chill
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