Electricity

English

Etymology

From New Latin ēlectricus (“‘of amber’”), from Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (elektron), “‘amber’”), related to ἠλέκτωρ (elektor), “‘shining sun’”)

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˌiː.lekˈtrɪs.ɪ.ti/, SAMPA: /%i:.lek"trIs.I.ti/

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Noun

Singular Electricity

Plural -

Electricity (-)

1. A form of energy usually carried by wires or produced by batteries used to power machines and computing, communications, lighting, and heating devices.
2. A form of secondary energy, caused by the behavior of electrons and protons, properly called "electrical energy".
   • 2000, James Meek, Home-made answer to generating electricity harks back to the past, The Guardian

     Householders could one day be producing as much electricity as all the country's nuclear power stations combined, thanks to the revolutionary application of a device developed in the early 19th century.

3. A fundamental attractive property of matter, appearing in negative and positive kinds.
   • 1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 1st edition, p. 51 (First known English usage)

     Again, The concretion of Ice will not endure a dry attrition without liquation; for if it be rubbed long with a cloth, it melteth. But Crystal will calefie unto electricity; that is, a power to attract strawes and light bodies, and convert the needle freely placed.

4. The flow of charge carriers within a conductor, properly called "electric current".
5. The charge carriers within a conductor, properly called "electric charge".
   • 1873, James Clerk Maxwell, A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism

     We may express all these results in a concise and consistent manner by describing an electrified body as charged with a certain quantity of electricity, which we may denote by e.

6. A class of physical phenomena, related to flows and interactions of electric charge
7. A field of physical science and technology, concerned with the phenomena of electric charge
8. Excitement.

   Opening night for the new production had an electricity unlike other openings.

Synonyms

alternating current (AC)

current – n.

energy – n.

power – n.

Translations

form of energy

Afrikaans: elektrisiteit af(af) Arabic: كهرباء ar(ar) (kahrabaa') m. Bosnian: struja bs(bs) f. Breton: tredan m. Bulgarian: електричество n. Chinese: Mandarin: trad. 電, simpl. 电 (pinyin: diàn), trad. 電氣, simpl. 电气 (pinyin: diànqì), trad. 電能, simpl. 电能 (pinyin: diànnéng) Czech: elektřina cs(cs) f. Danish: elektricitet da(da) c., el da(da) Dutch: elektriciteit nl(nl) Esperanto: elektro eo(eo) Faroese: ravmagn fo(fo) n. Filipino: kuryente, elektrisidad Finnish: sähkö fi(fi) French: électricité fr(fr) f. German: Elektrizität de(de) f. Greek: ηλεκτρισμός el(el) (ilektrismós) m. Haitian Creole: elektrisite Hebrew: חשמל he(he) (khashmal) Hiligaynon: [[elektrisidad#Template:Hil|elektrisidad]], [[kuryente#Template:Hil|kuryente]] Hindi: बिजली hi(hi) (bijlī) f. Hungarian: elektromosság hu(hu) Icelandic: rafmagn n. Ido: elektro Indonesian: Listrik Italian: elettricità it(it) f. Japanese: 電気 ja(ja) (でんき, denki) Kamba: sitima Kikuyu: thitima

Kis: [[sitima#Template:Kis|sitima]] Korean: 전기 ko(ko) (電氣, jeongi) Kurdish: kareba ku(ku) f., elektrîk ku(ku) f., ceyran ku(ku) f., کاره‌با ku(ku) Latin: ēlectricitās la(la) f. Latvian: elektrība f. Luhya: estima Luo: stima Macedonian: струја mk(mk) (struja) Malay: kuasa elektrik ms(ms) Meru: thitima Norwegian: elektrisitet no(no) m. Polish: elektryczność pl(pl) f. Portuguese: eletricidade pt(pt) Romanian: electricitate ro(ro) Russian: электричество ru(ru) (elektríčestvo) n. Serbian: Cyrillic: струја f. Roman: struja f. Slovak: elektrina f. Sotho: motlakase st(st) Spanish: electricidad es(es) f. Swahili: umeme sw(sw) Swedish: el sv(sv) c., elektricitet sv(sv) c. Tagalog: kuryente tl(tl), elektrisidad tl(tl) Telugu: విద్యుత్తు (vidyuttu) Turkish: ceyran tr(tr), elektrik tr(tr) Urdu: بجلی (bijlī) f., برق (barq) f. Vietnamese: điện vi(vi), điện năng vi(vi) Welsh: trydan

See also

• electric
• electron

References

• Equivalent text in Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 6th edition (1672), p. 53
• Niels H. de V. Heathcote (December 1967). "The early meaning of electricity: Some Pseudodoxia Epidemica - I". Annals of Science 23 (4): pp. 261-275.

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