Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Cathode
/ˈkæθoʊd/noun
The electrode where conventional current leaves a device and reduction takes place.
The Greek roots
κατά
katá
down, downward
ὁδός
hodós
way, road
Literally: “way down”
The story of the word
The way down, made in 1834 as the mirror of anode by William Whewell at Faraday's request. Every cathode ray tube, from the first television to the laboratory oscilloscope, is named for the electrode that the electrons stream off. Cathodic protection uses the same principle to save ships: bolt a block of zinc to the hull and the sea eats that instead of the steel.
- 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
anodeelectrodeexodusmethod
In a sentence
The cathode glowed a dull orange behind the glass.
Lithium battery capacity is mostly a question of what the cathode is made of.