lightning rod

English

Noun

The lightning rod

lightning rod (plural lightning rods)

1. A metallic conductor that is attached to a high point of a building and leads to the ground and protects the building from damage by lightning
2. (figuratively) A person or thing that is a target for negative reactions and distracts criticism from another target.

Synonyms

• lightning conductor (British)

Translations

metallic conductor that protects from lightning

• Armenian: շանթարգել (hy) (šantʻargel)
• Bashkir: йәшен ҡайтарғыс (yəşen qaytarğıs)
• Crimean Tatar: yaşınçeker
• Czech: hromosvod (cs) m, bleskosvod m
• Dutch: bliksemafleider (nl) m, donderroede (nl) f
• Esperanto: fulmoŝirmilo
• Finnish: ukkosenjohdatin (fi)
• French: paratonnerre (fr) m
• German: Blitzableiter (de) m
• Greek: αλεξικέραυνο (el) n (alexikéravno)
• Hungarian: villámhárító (hu)
• Irish: conduchtaire tintrí m
• Italian: parafulmine (it) m
• Japanese: 避雷針 (ja) (ひらいしん, hiraishin)
• Macedonian: громобран m (gromobran)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: lynavleder m

  Nynorsk: lynavleiar m

• Polish: piorunochron (pl) m
• Portuguese: para-raios (pt) m
• Russian: громоотво́д (ru) m (gromootvód), молниеотво́д (ru) m (molnijeotvód)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: гро̏мобра̄н m, муњобран ?, громосвод ?

  Roman: grȍmobrān (sh) m, munjobran ?, gromosvod ?

• Slovene: strelovod (sl) m
• Spanish: pararrayos (es) m
• Swedish: åskledare (sv) c
• Tagalog: kayag-kidlat, pararayos
• Thai: สายล่อฟ้า (sǎai-lɔ̂ɔ-fáa)

metaphorically: person or thing that distracts criticism from another target

• Czech: hromosvod (cs) m
• Finnish: ukkosenjohdatin (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: κεραυνός (el) (keravnós)
• Russian: стре́лочник (ru) m (stréločnik), козёл отпуще́ния (ru) m (kozjól otpuščénija)

Further reading

• lightning rod on Wikipedia.Wikipedia