electric
See also: elèctric
English
Alternative forms
- electrick (chiefly archaic)
Etymology
1640s (Thomas Browne), from New Latin ēlectricus (“electrical; of amber”), from ēlectrum (“amber”) + -icus (“adjectival suffix”), from Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron, “amber”), related to ἠλέκτωρ (ēléktōr, “shining sun”). The Latin term was apparently used first with the sense “electrical” in 1600 by the English physician and scientist, William Gilbert in his work De Magnete.[1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɪˈlɛktɹɪk/, /əˈlɛktɹɪk/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (file)
Adjective
electric (not comparable)
- Of, relating to, produced by, operated with, or utilising electricity; electrical.
- 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 1, in Internal Combustion:
- But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.
- 2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
- [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.
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- Of or relating to an electronic version of a musical instrument that has an acoustic equivalent.
- Being emotionally thrilling; electrifying.
- a. 1857, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “A Vision of Poets”, in Poems, volume I, New York: C. S. Francis & Co., published 1857, page 195–196:
- And bold / Electric Pindar, quick as fear, / With race-dust on his cheeks, and clear / Slant startled eyes that seemed to hear // The chariot rounding the last goal, / to hurtle past it in his soul.
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Derived terms
Terms derived from electric
- acoustic-electric
- electrical
- electrical outlet
- electrical engineer
- electric bass
- electric blues
- electric car
- electric cello
- electric chair
- electric darts
- electric dulcimer
- electric eye
- electric fence
- electric flux
- electric grid (power grid)
- electric guitar
- electric harp
- electric sitar
- electric shock
- electric violin
Translations
electrical
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electronic (musical instrument)
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emotionally thrilling
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Noun
electric (usually uncountable, plural electrics)
- (informal, uncountable, usually with definite article) Electricity; the electricity supply.
- We had to sit in the dark cos the electric was cut off.
- (rare, countable) An electric car.
- (archaic) A substance or object which can be electrified; an insulator or non-conductor, like amber or glass.
- (fencing) Fencing with the use of a body wire, box, and related equipment to detect when a weapon has touched an opponent.
Usage notes
Use of "the electric" to mean "the electricity" or "the electricity supply" may be seen as bad English.
Antonyms
- (fencing): steam
Translations
References
- “electric”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
- electric in An American Dictionary of the English Language, by Noah Webster, 1828.
- electric in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- Dictionary.com definitions of electric
- Niels H. de V. Heathcote (December 1967). "The early meaning of electricity: Some Pseudodoxia Epidemica - I". Annals of Science 23 (4): pp. 261-275.
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from French électrique.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /eˈlek.trik/
Adjective
electric m or n (feminine singular electrică, masculine plural electrici, feminine and neuter plural electrice)
Declension
declension of electric
singular | plural | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | neuter | feminine | masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
nominative/ accusative |
indefinite | electric | electrică | electrici | electrice | ||
definite | electricul | electrica | electricii | electricele | |||
genitive/ dative |
indefinite | electric | electrice | electrici | electrice | ||
definite | electricului | electricei | electricilor | electricelor |
Related terms
- electrician
- electricitate
- electrificare
- electrificat
- electriza
- electrizant
- electrizare
- electrizat
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