Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Electrode
/ɪˈlɛktroʊd/noun
A conductor through which current enters or leaves a cell, tube or body.
The Greek roots
ἤλεκτρον
ḗlektron
amber
ὁδός
hodós
way, road
Literally: “amber road”
The story of the word
Faraday needed names for the two ends of his circuit and wrote to William Whewell for help. The pair settled on electrode in 1834, along with anode, cathode and ion. The ἤλεκτρον in it is amber, the fossil resin that picks up chaff when rubbed, which is where the whole vocabulary of electricity begins.
- 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
electronanodecathodeexodusmethod
In a sentence
The welder replaced a burnt electrode before starting the next seam.
Each electrode was taped to the scalp with a dab of conductive gel.