Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Electromagnet
/ɪˌlɛktroʊˈmæɡnɪt/noun
A magnet made by winding a current-carrying coil around an iron core.
The Greek roots
ἤλεκτρον
ḗlektron
amber
μαγνῆτις
magnêtis
of Magnesia
Literally: “amber and the Magnesian stone”
The story of the word
Both halves name things the Greeks already had. ἤλεκτρον is amber, which lifts chaff after you rub it on wool, and the magnet is the λίθος Μαγνῆτις, the stone of Magnesia in Thessaly. William Sturgeon wound varnished wire round an iron horseshoe in 1825 and made the first working electromagnet, joining two curiosities that had sat unconnected for two thousand years. Magnesia also supplied the names of magnesium and manganese.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1820s
Same family
electronelectricitymagnetismmagnesiummanganese
In a sentence
The scrapyard crane picks up a car with a single electromagnet.
Cut the current and an electromagnet forgets everything it was holding.