Old English freosan "turn to ice" (class II strong verb; past tense freas, past participle froren), from Proto-Germanic *freusanan (cf. Old Norse frjosa, Old High German friosan, German frieren "to freeze," Gothic frius "frost"), from Proto-Germanic *freus-, equivalent to PIE root *preus- "to freeze," also "to burn" (cf. Sanskrit prusva, Latin pruina "hoarfrost," Welsh rhew "frost," Sanskrit prustah "burnt," Albanian prus "burning coals," Latin pruna "a live coal").
Transitive sense first recorded 14c., figurative sense c.1400. Meaning "become rigid or motionless" attested by 1720. Sense of "fix at a certain level, make non-transactable" is 1922. Freeze frame is from 1960, originally "a briefly Frozen Shot after the Jingle to allow ample time for Change over at the end of a T.V. 'Commercial.' " ["ABC of Film & TV," 1960].
c.1400, from freeze (v.).
freeze (frēz)
v. froze (frōz), fro·zen (frō'zən), freez·ing, freez·es
To pass from the liquid to the solid state by loss of heat.
To make or become congealed, stiffened, or hardened by exposure to cold.
A stopping of change, esp in various monetary matters: a freeze on profits/ nuclear freeze (1930s+)
verb