Did someone say “a nice cold drink” or “an ice cold drink”? “‘I had a nice, cold drink.’ ‘I had an ice-cold drink’” was printed in a 1915 book.

This was posted on Reddit—Shower Thoughts on May 12, 2018:

“A nice cold drink and an ice cold drink is the same sentence with the space in different places.”


Google Books
The School, the Child and the Teacher:
Suggestions for Students in Training
By Ellen Winifred Adamson
London, UK: Longmans, Greeen and Company
1915
Pg. 102:
Another useful exercise is the practising of pairs of sentences which emphasize the need for giving each consonant its full value and for separating words properly:

“I had a nice, cold drink,” “I had an ice-cold drink.”

Google Groups: alt.english.usage
Orange crush
Opinicus
8/25/99
(...)
Now I think I’ll go and have an ice cold drink. Or maybe a nice cold drink.

Google Books
When They Severed Earth from Sky:
How the Human Mind Shapes Myth
By Elizabeth Wayland Barber and Paul T. Barber
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press
2004
Pg. 142:
Similarly, if you ask for an ice-cold drink, the addressee has a fifty-fifty chance of hearing it as a nice cold drink.

Twitter
Darianne.
@dplotts
“An ice cold drink” and “a nice cold drink” are essentially the same thing if you don’t properly emphasize what you are saying. #random
9:04 PM - 2 Aug 2012

Twitter
Erol-antony McKenzie
@erol_antz
Home and having an ice cold drink. Or is it a nice cold drink? Something new tonight anyway.....
12:54 PM - 6 Aug 2013 from Hounslow, England

Twitter
Out Of Order.
@AJDontCare
The difference between “A nice cold drink” and “An ice cold drink”
11:01 PM - 28 Aug 2014

Twitter
Pseudo Justin ⚾
@pseudojustin
Fine I give up trying to figure out if you said “an ice cold drink” or “a nice cold drink” and we’ll both pretend it doesn’t matter 😫😩😞😔
7:50 PM - 1 Dec 2016

Twitter
Emily
@EfrigginL
I just realized “a nice cold drink” and “an ice cold drink” sound the exact same. #mindblown
6:13 PM - 14 Jul 2017

Reddit—Shower Thoughts
A nice cold drink and an ice cold drink is the same sentence with the space in different places
submitted May 12, 2018 by DistinctChallenge

Twitter
EATechie™
@technieGUY
A nice cold drink and an ice cold drink is the same sentence with the space in different places
6:07 PM - 12 May 2018