Frozen Words
Preserved but no longer current.
Everyone knows the incident of the "frozen horn" related by Munchausen, also how Pantagruel and his friends, on the con- fines of the Frozen Sea, heard the uproar of a battle, which had been frozen the preceding winter, released by a thaw (Rabelais: Bk. iv, ch. 56).
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Frozen Words” mean?
Everyone knows the incident of the "frozen horn" related by Munchausen, also how Pantagruel and his friends, on the con- fines of the Frozen Sea, heard the uproar of a battle, which had been frozen the preceding winter, released by a thaw (Rabelais: Bk. iv, ch. 56).
Is “Frozen Words” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.