Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Magnetism
/ˈmæɡnɪtɪzəm/noun
The force by which certain materials attract or repel one another.
The Greek roots
Μαγνησία
Magnēsía
Magnesia, a district
Literally: “the Magnesian property”
Follow a root:Μαγνησία5 words
The story of the word
The lodestone was μαγνῆτις λίθος, the stone of Magnesia, a district of Thessaly that shares its name with two cities in Asia Minor; ancient writers already disagreed about which of them supplied the mineral. Magnesium and manganese come from the same place name, prised apart by chemists only after long confusion between a white Magnesian earth and a black one. English magnetism dates from the early 17th century, when Gilbert's De Magnete of 1600 made the earth itself a magnet.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
magnetmagnesiummanganesemagneto
In a sentence
A child discovers magnetism the first time two fridge magnets refuse to meet.