electric
See also: elèctric
English
Alternative forms
- electrick (chiefly archaic)
Etymology
1640s (Thomas Browne), from New Latin ēlectricus (“electrical; of amber”), from ēlectrum (“amber”) + -icus (“adjectival suffix”), from Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron, “amber”), related to ἠλέκτωρ (ēléktōr, “shining sun”). The Latin term was apparently used first with the sense “electrical” in 1600 by the English physician and scientist, William Gilbert in his work De Magnete.[1]
Pronunciation
Adjective
electric (not comparable)
- Of, relating to, produced by, operated with, or utilising electricity; electrical.
- 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion[1]:
- But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.
- 2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
- [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.
- Of or relating to an electronic version of a musical instrument that has an acoustic equivalent.
- Being emotionally thrilling; electrifying.
- a. 1857, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “A Vision of Poets”, in Poems, volume I, New York: C. S. Francis & Co., published 1857, pages 195–196:
- And bold / Electric Pindar, quick as fear, / With race-dust on his cheeks, and clear / Slant startled eyes that seemed to hear // The chariot rounding the last goal, / to hurtle past it in his soul.
Synonyms
Derived terms
- acoustic-electric
- all-electric
- diesel-electric
- electrical
- electrical engineer
- electric bass
- electric blues
- electric car
- electric cello
- electric chair
- electric darts
- electric dulcimer
- electric eye
- electric fence
- electric flux
- electric grid (power grid)
- electric guitar
- electric harp
- electric light
- electric shock
- electric sitar
- electric violin
Translations
electrical
|
electronic (musical instrument)
|
emotionally thrilling
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Noun
electric (plural electrics)
- (informal, usually with definite article) Electricity; the electricity supply.
- We had to sit in the dark because the electric was cut off.
- (rare, countable) An electric car.
- 2004, Dennis Barton, Red Star 4: Victory
- There were electric vehicles around, but four-wheel drive electrics were pretty damned rare, and the snow was deep enough to stop anything that didn't have a minimum of four big wheels spinning at all times.
- 2004, Dennis Barton, Red Star 4: Victory
- An electric toothbrush.
- 2007, Working Mother (volume 31, number 1, page 71)
- The beautiful VIOlight bathroom unit takes up very little space (it's about the size of a cup), yet it holds up to 4 toothbrushes - even electrics!
- 2007, Working Mother (volume 31, number 1, page 71)
- (archaic) A substance or object which can be electrified; an insulator or non-conductor, like amber or glass.
- (fencing) Fencing with the use of a body wire, box, and related equipment to detect when a weapon has touched an opponent.
- Antonym: steam
Translations
electric car
|
References
- ^ “electric”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
- electric in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
- “electric”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- Dictionary.com definitions of electric
- Niels H. de V. Heathcote (December 1967). "The early meaning of electricity: Some Pseudodoxia Epidemica - I". Annals of Science 23 (4): pp. 261-275.
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from French électrique.
Pronunciation
Adjective
electric m or n (feminine singular electrică, masculine plural electrici, feminine and neuter plural electrice)
Declension
Declension of electric
singular | plural | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | neuter | feminine | masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
nominative/ accusative |
indefinite | electric | electrică | electrici | electrice | ||
definite | electricul | electrica | electricii | electricele | |||
genitive/ dative |
indefinite | electric | electrice | electrici | electrice | ||
definite | electricului | electricei | electricelor | electricilor |
Related terms
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from New Latin
- English terms derived from New Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English 3-syllable words
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- en:Fencing
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