View source for Etymology of electricity

{{DISPLAYTITLE:Etymology of ''electricity''}}
The word ''[[electricity]]'' derives from Neo-Latin and ultimately Greek.  It first appears in English in Francis Bacon's writings. Depending on context, the word may refer to "electric charge", "electric power" or "electric energy".

==Historical drift==
===Pre-English origins===
The [[Neo-Latin]] adjective {{Lang|la|electricus}}, originally meaning 'of [[amber]]', was first used to refer to amber's attractive properties by [[William Gilbert (astronomer)|William Gilbert]] in his 1600 text [[De Magnete]].  The term came from the classical Latin {{Lang|la|electrum}}, 'amber', from the Greek {{Lang|grc|ἤλεκτρον}} ({{Lang|grc-latn|elektron}}), 'amber'.<ref name="ReferenceA">electric, ''adj.'' and ''n.'', Oxford English Dictionary, Draft Revision Mar. 2008</ref>  The origin of the Greek word is unknown, but there is speculation that it might have come from a [[Phoenician language|Phoenician]] word {{Lang|phn|elēkrŏn}}, meaning 'shining light'.{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}}

===Entry into English===
The word ''electric'' was first used by [[Francis Bacon]] to describe materials like amber that attracted other objects.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>Bacon F, "Physiological Remains", before 1626, in ''Baconiana'' (1679)</ref> The first usage of the English word ''electricity'' is ascribed to [[Sir Thomas Browne]] in his 1646 work, ''[[Pseudodoxia Epidemica]]'':

{{quote|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 [[quartz|Crystal]] will [[wikt:calefie|calefie]] unto electricity; that is, a power to attract strawes and light bodies, and [[rotate|convert]] [[versorium|the needle]] freely placed|''Pseudodoxia Epidemica'', 1st edition, p. 51<ref>[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/pseudodoxia/pseudo21.html#page53 Equivalent text in ''Pseudodoxia Epidemica'', 6th edition (1672), p. 53]</ref>}}

In this context, an "Electrick" or "Electrick body" was a non-conductor, or an object capable of attracting "light bodies" (like bits of [[paper]]) when [[triboelectric effect|excited by friction]]; a piece of amber is "an Electrick", while a piece of iron is not.  "Electricity", then, was simply the property of behaving like an electric, in the same way that "[[Elasticity (physics)|elasticity]]" is the property of behaving like an [[Elastomer|elastic]].<ref name="Heathcote">{{Cite journal
| doi = 10.1080/00033796700203316
| volume = 23
| issue = 4
| pages =261–275
| author = Niels H. de V. Heathcote
| title = The early meaning of ''electricity'': Some ''Pseudodoxia Epidemica'' - I
| journal = Annals of Science
| accessdate =
|date=December 1967
}}</ref>  ("Electric" continued to be used as a noun until at least 1913<ref>{{Cite web |title=electric |url=https://www.websters1913.com/words/Electric |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=Webster's 1913}}</ref> and is still used in this sense in the word "[[dielectric]]".)

It was not until later that the definition shifted to refer to the ''cause'' of the attraction instead of the property of being attractive.<ref name="Heathcote"/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Electricity |url=https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/electricity |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=Websters Dictionary 1828 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=electricity |url=https://www.websters1913.com/words/Electricity |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=Webster's 1913}}</ref>

''Charge'', in the electrical sense, was first used in 1748.<ref>{{Cite web |title=charge {{!}} Etymology, origin and meaning |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/charge |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=etymonline |language=en}}</ref>

== "Quantity of electricity" ==
The term '''''quantity of electricity''''' was once common in scientific publications.  It appears frequently in the writings of [[Benjamin Franklin|Franklin]], [[Michael Faraday|Faraday]], [[James Clerk Maxwell|Maxwell]], [[Robert Millikan|Millikan]], and [[J. J. Thomson]], and was even occasionally used by [[Albert Einstein|Einstein]].

However, over the last hundred years the term ''electricity'' has been used by electric utility companies and the general public in a non-scientific way.  Today the vast majority of publications no longer refer to electricity as meaning electric charge.  Instead they speak of electricity as [[electrical energy|electromagnetic energy]].  The definition has drifted even further, and many authors now use the word ''electricity'' to mean [[current (electricity)|electric current]] ([[ampere]]s), energy flow ([[watt]]s), [[electrical potential]] ([[volt]]s), or electric force.  Others refer to any electrical phenomena as kinds of electricity.

These multiple definitions are probably the reason that ''quantity of electricity'' has fallen into disfavor among scientists.  Physics textbooks no longer define ''quantity of electricity'' or ''flow of electricity''.  ''Quantity of electricity'' is now regarded as an archaic usage, and it has slowly been replaced by the terms ''charge of electricity'', then ''quantity of [[electric charge]]'', and today simply ''charge''. Since the term ''electricity'' has increasingly become corrupted by contradictions and unscientific definitions, today's experts instead use the term ''charge'' to remove any possible confusion.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://amasci.com/miscon/whatis.html What is electricity?]
* [http://www.hbcpnetbase.com/pdf/default.asp?id=02_07_91 CRC Handbook: Definition of Scientific Terms]
* [http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=electricity Merriam-Webster: Electricity] (incorrect, charge is energy?)
* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9026554 Britannica: Coulomb]
* [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9032271 Britannica: Electric Charge]
* [http://iopscience.iop.org/0031-9120/47/1/78 Physics Education Journal: 'The Electric Vocabulary']
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBRTR2dlwvA TED-Ed Lesson 'The Electric Vocabulary']
* [http://histoires-de-sciences.over-blog.fr/2018/03/amber-and-electricity.html Amber and electricity. From Thales to Gilbert.]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Etymology Of Electricity}}
[[Category:Electricity]]
[[Category:Etymologies|Electricity]]
[[Category:English words|Electricity]]