glacière

Glacière is the French term for an insulated container used to store ice and keep foods and beverages cold, historically common in households before the widespread adoption of electric refrigeration. In English, it is often translated as icebox or ice chest. A glacière typically consists of a wooden or metal cabinet with thick insulating walls, lined with tin or zinc, and a compartment for ice, sometimes with a drip tray and a secondary drawer for perishables.

Operation and layout: Ice blocks or crushed ice would be placed in the ice compartment, cooling the interior as the cold air sank. The outer shell could be made of wood, metal, or a combination, and many designs included a tight-sealing lid to minimize melt-out. In urban networks, ice was delivered by ice wagons from ice houses and stored by households in their glacière.

History and decline: The glacière rose to prominence in the 19th century and remained widespread into the mid-20th century, gradually replaced by electric refrigerators. Some large homes and hotels continued to use iceboxes into the postwar era. Portable glacières or cooler bags, a later adaptation, remained popular for picnics and travel.

Other uses: In contemporary French, glacière can also refer to a modern cooler bag or a portable ice chest for short-term cooling, especially for camping or the transport of frozen goods. The term thus covers both historical household devices and modern portable cooling products.