I was enjoying learning using the website until I noticed a few errors in the ‘kitchen’ topic. I learnt the word for ‘fridge’ a few weeks ago from a book 1000 first words in Welsh, Oergell. But this website is saying rhewgell. When I looked up rhewgell (goggle and ap geiriauduron) it says it’s freezer. The word learn-welsh.net gives for freezer is rhewgist, which according to the same sources means chest freezer 
Assuming I’m right and the places I’ve looked these words up is, it’s disappointing if they are wrong because it makes me wonder if there are other errors. And I’m wondering now if they’re wrong how much Welsh do the developers of the website know. Sorry maybe I’ve jumped to conclusions but it’s disapointing if it’s wrong.
Me personally I’ve always heard oergell and “rhew” weems to make sense as freezer.
However, this dictionary it seems to agree with learn-welsh site:
https://geiriaduracademi.org
p.s. what is a “chest freezer”? 
Chest freezer is a freezer which has a lid that opens as opposed to a door like a fridge if that makes sense. My parents have always had one.
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Oh, my grandma had one, and actually I have one myself now - I just didn’t know the name, I guess!
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I only know because my family talked about the different freezers to buy them etc 
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Just wait till you start hearing conversations about having milk in your tea where someone will say Llaeth and someone else will say Llefrith…
Don’t forget you would have chosen either the Northern or the Southern version of SSiW and there are regional variations just as there are in any country’s language.
When you think that the Oxford Dictionary people have to see clear evidence of a new word being used publicly 10,000 times before it is accepted for entry, it’s not too difficult to imagine a tradition growing up around the use of a particular word/phrase.
Or the spelling thereof…
Rhewi is to freeze, oeri means to become or grow cold… However my “Geiriadur Mawr” from 1980 gives refrigerator for rhewgell but freezer does not appear at all. Refrigerator can be either rhewgell or oergell. Why worry about it, cold is cold…!!
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Thanks for the explanation it was very confusing since I’d just learnt something else in a book. But I wasn’t referring to SSIW but a website I was learning some extra vocab on.
No worries, I saw you were talking about learn-welsh.net.
People are different (ie they make “mistakes”!) and therefore, so do books…
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And websites!
(Though I wouldn’t keep your ice cream in a ‘fridge only’ fridge @Garys - there’s cold, and then there’s cold 
)
Perhaps some of the naming differences have arisen as chilling/freezing technology has become more readily available to people at large. It’s not so long since pantries were common, or a tiny freezer compartment at the top of a fridge was exciting…
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This also reminded me that we now tend to associate “ice” with freezer, but the first form of fridge in Italy, before people even had electricity widely available, was called “ghiacciaia” (“ice container”).
They were sort of cupboards where people would put blocks of ice along with food.
Maybe that’s where “rhewgell” comes from, but later oergell became more common?
Just guessing!
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I’ve always used ‘oergell’ for fridge and ‘rhewgell’ for freezer, so I had a look at Geiriadur yr Academi out of curiosity and yes, it has ‘rhewgell’ for fridge, but it also offers ‘cwpwrdd oer’, ‘cwpwrdd rhewi’ and ‘cwpwrdd rhew’ so I guess there must be quite a lot of variation across Wales as usual 
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I agree - I’ve always used oergell for fridge and rhewgell for freezer, and indeed always heard it as well, at least where we lived. And it does make sense, doesn’t it? Fridges keep things cold, and freezers keep them frozen.
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Despite or because of the author?
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Jury’s still out on that one, I think… 
Is it a folfo?..
…more easily recognised from the angle in the photo below (sorry in advance @gisella-albertini - actually I like volvos!) 
Rich 
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Not sure if you’re aware that in my forum avatar pic I’m actually in a folfo? 
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Er, I’d never noticed the Volvo in @gisella-albertini’s Avatar in my life before, your honour 
:
Rich 
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Just had a Google and even as far back as the 1700s people were building ice-caves and importing chunks of Norwegian ice sawn from lakes there and using straw as insulation to keep it from defrosting. That was dedication on the part of the transporters!!!
Apparently they are still finding examples of these around the country… As a household, we freeze milk and defrost it when required. This is a habit my wife has kept from her teens - shopping was done once a week for the whole week. So if you are offered a panad at our house, you may mistake “One lump or two” as a question about sugar…
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