Electra
/ɪˈlɛktrə/proper noun
A woman's name, borne in myth by the daughter of Agamemnon who waits for her brother to avenge their father.
The Greek roots
Literally: “amber, the gleaming one”
The story of the word
Ἠλέκτρα belongs to ἤλεκτρον, amber, the fossil resin that picks up straw and hair after rubbing. William Gilbert built the Latin adjective electricus on that Greek word in 1600, which is why the wiring in the wall is named after a gemstone. All three great Athenian tragedians wrote her, and Jung borrowed her in 1913 for a female counterpart to the Oedipus complex, a term Freud never accepted.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
In a sentence
Her Electra was played cold, which made the recognition scene land harder.
The Lockheed Electra was named for the star, which was named for the nymph.