The definition of Electricity

[studiot]

Not long ago we had a long ill tempered thread about the meaning of the word electricity.

Since this thread was closed I don't want to rake over old coals but I was reading some history and came across this snippet and thought it might be of interest to some.

Quote

Whittaker

  For two thousand years the atractive power of amber had been regarded as a virtue peculiar to that substance, or possessed by at most one or two others. Gilbert (1540 - 1603) proved this view to be mistaken, showing that the same effects are induced by friction in quite a large class of bodies, among which he mentioned glass, sulphur, sealing wax and various precious stones.
  A force which was manifested by so many different kinds of matter seemed to need a name of its own; and acordingly Gilbert gave it the name 'electric' , which it has ever since retained.

  The substantive 'electricity' was introduced by Sir Thomat Browne in his Pseudoxia Epidemic (p76) in 1646.

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by studiot

[Strange]

In Philip Pullman's Dark Materials novels, he refers to "ambaric lighting". At first I thought it was a reference to the colour. But then realised that in this parallel world, they had adopted the word for electricity from the Arabic-derived amber, instead of the Latin electrum (amber).