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Was reading the Sunday comics in the local rag, and saw a strip called "Pickles" by Brian Crane. This character was eating ice cream too fast, and got that sensation I know we've all experienced … pain in the jaw/eye/forehead/temple caused by the cold temps. Crane used the term "brain freeze" to label that sensation.
I'm from the Midwest, and when I was a kid I think we called it an "ice cream headache." Not terribly elegant, but descriptive. My wife, from Milwaukee, also used "ice cream headache."
Google N-grams gives a curious result. Use of both terms starts climbing circa 1960, but there's a curious isolated spike for "brain freeze" around 1900. Have no idea what that might have been about.
I'd appreciate hearing equivalent terms from other parts of the country/world. What do you call this ubiquitous sensation? Thanks!
Heimhenge said:
...but there's a curious isolated spike for "brain freeze" around 1900. Have no idea what that might have been about...
When you do a search by picking the date range at the bottom of the graph, the books in that date range with the phrase in it will appear. An advanced search can be performed to isolate the peak to four books. Three of them are discussing literal "brain freeze" without any mention of ice cream. The fourth is a spurious result where "brain" ends one sentence and "freeze" starts another. HTH
Emmett
In the undisclosed location in the United States where I live, I have also experienced these cold-stimulus headaches, which usually occurred when an Icee, milkshake, or other cold food or beverage came into contact with the roof of my mouth. Around here, I have only heard it referred to as a "brain freeze".
EmmettRedd said:
Heimhenge said:
...but there's a curious isolated spike for "brain freeze" around 1900. Have no idea what that might have been about...
When you do a search by picking the date range at the bottom of the graph, the books in that date range with the phrase in it will appear. An advanced search can be performed to isolate the peak to four books. Three of them are discussing literal "brain freeze" without any mention of ice cream. The fourth is a spurious result where "brain" ends one sentence and "freeze" starts another. HTH
Emmett
Makes sense to me. I'm still learning how to use N-grams. Thanks for solving that puzzle. I was under the impression that ice cream didn't become widely commercially available until the 20th century, even though it supposedly existed as a confection in the 18th century (but only in high society). That's why the spike around 1900 was so puzzling to me. I appreciate the N-gram tutorial.
I did find one other term used to describe that phenomenon (by asking a friend in health care), and that was the somewhat more "medical" term quoted by My Young Padawan: cold-stimulus headache.
Heimhenge said:
I'm from the Midwest, and when I was a kid I think we called it an "ice cream headache." Not terribly elegant, but descriptive. My wife, from Milwaukee, also used "ice cream headache."
I don't have great access to a dictionary or database that describes the regional significance of slang phrases, but I shall say that I was born in Milwaukee, as were most of my relatives, and I've used "ice-cream headache" often, though, since I haven't lived in Milwaukee since I was ten years old, I also use "brain freeze", perhaps more frequently than the prior. Is "ice-cream headache" a Milwaukee thing?
http://ihs-classification.org/_downloads/mixed/WatermarkedShortForm%20ICHD-II.pdf
Apparently, the International Headache Society's The International Classification of Headache Disorders lists an even more specific term: "Headache attributed to ingestion or inhalation of a cold stimulus".
tunawrites said:
Is "ice-cream headache" a Milwaukee thing?
I grew up 70 miles north of Milwaukee and "ice cream headache" was the description we used too, even for non-ice cream treats. I often experienced one from gulping down a cherry Mr. Misty from Dairy Queen or a huge ICEE from the gas station. "Brain freeze" came to my attention later via TV or movies -- Bart Simpson and his Squishees?
Gee, I'd thought "brain freeze" referred not to an ice-cream headache but to a temporary and usually laughable loss of mental function, what I usually call a " mental brown-out". I didn't know people use it to mean the other.
I grew up with "ice-cream headache", but it's not much help to you: My folks grew up in Illinois and Wisconsin, I was born in Madison (WI) and my earliest memories are of Minneapolis. Judging by the above, it seems already pretty well established that "ice-cream headache" is midwestern.
Here is an article about research involving brain freeze.
Emmett
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