electricity

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Pronunciation 1.3 Noun 1.3.1 Synonyms 1.3.2 Translations 1.3.3 See also 1.4 References

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

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

[edit] Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˌiː.lekˈtrɪs.ɪ.ti/, SAMPA: /%i:.lek"trIs.I.ti/
•  Audio (US)^{help, file}

[edit] Noun

electricity (usually uncountable; plural electricities)

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.

[edit] Synonyms

alternating current (AC)

current – n.

energy – n.

power – n.

[edit] Translations

[edit] See also

• electric
• electron

[edit] 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.