Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Anode
/ˈænoʊd/noun
The electrode where conventional current enters a device and oxidation takes place.
The Greek roots
ἀνά
aná
up, upward
ὁδός
hodós
way, road
Literally: “way up”
The story of the word
Faraday wanted terms that committed him to no theory about which way electricity actually moved, so he asked William Whewell, who supplied anode and cathode in 1834. Whewell had the sun in mind: current rising in the east, setting in the west. The ὁδός in both words is an ordinary road, the same one walked in exodus, a way out, and method, a way after.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1834
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
cathodeelectrodeexodusmethododometer
In a sentence
Corrosion always shows up at the anode first.
In a discharging battery the anode is the negative terminal, which catches out every student once.