冷凍
れいとう · reitou · JLPT N2 · noun
freeze
🧊 冷 (cold) + 凍 (freeze) = cold + freeze: freezing, cold storage
Both kanji point to cold: 冷 means cold and 凍 means frozen, so 冷凍 covers freezing food and cold storage. Compare 冷蔵 (refrigeration), which keeps the same 冷 but not the freeze.
冷 — ice radical 冫 + order 令
A semantic-phonetic compound. The left side 冫 (ice) supplies the meaning of coldness, while 令 (lìng, 'command/order') hints at the pronunciation. Originally referring to the chill of ice, 冷 broadened to mean cold in general, and figuratively cool, indifferent, or detached.