frigidarium
- noun
- /frɪˈdʒɪdɛriəm/
- Archaic
:
frigidario
- The frigidarium was a crucial part of the bathhouse, providing a chilly retreat after the hot steam rooms.
Examples
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The frigidarium of a small private bath in the center of Hippo Regius (in modern-day Algeria) must have been a spectacular place.
Academic text (2011) -
It is a floor plan of the convolutions of a labyrinth, rendered on the floor of the Roman frigidarium, a cold room that is the traditional finishing point in the sequence of Roman bathing.
Academic text (2011) -
We're looking at the outside where we can see the outside of the frigidarium with its windows and its groin vaulting exposed on the outside.
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In a dialogue of art and architecture, depicted walls meet actual walls; the very center of the labyrinth is also the center of the frigidarium.
Academic text (2011) -
The frigidarium itself is approximately 36 square yards (30 square meters) with two steps leading down to a single cold-water pool in one corner.
Academic text (2011) -
Its construction and mosaics date from 150-200; 63 expensive slabs of marble covered the frigidarium walls.
Academic text (2011) -
In the normal course of events, the labyrinth and the frigidarium would be entered both before and after the beholder had spent some time contemplating and traversing the mosaic of boxers in the tepidarium.
Academic text (2011) -
A massive black-and-white labyrinth mosaic paves the frigidarium floor, a space measuring nearly 7 feet 8 inches by 6 feet 7 inches (7 by 6 meters) (Fig. 9).
Academic text (2011) -
Labyrinth mosaic, late 3rd-early 4th century CE, frigidarium, Baths of the Labyrinth, Thuburbo Maius, Tunisia.
Academic text (2011) -
Although the labyrinth mosaic paving the floor of the frigidarium has been damaged, an interesting array of architectural structures still serves as its border: heavy masonry facades and black doorways seem to open onto cold, dark recesses beyond.
Academic text (2011)
How Warm
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Frigidarium comes from the Latin root frigid meaning 'cold' and the ending -arium meaning 'place', so it was the 'cold place' in Roman baths. That's why a frigidarium is a cold room or pool where people cooled off after hot baths.