Electr. Also kath-. [ad. Gr. κάθοδος a going down, way down, f. κατά down + ὁδος way.] a. The path by which an electric current leaves the electrolyte and passes into the negative pole; the point or surface in contact with the negative pole; in electro-metallurgy the object to be electro-plated. b. The negative pole. Opposed to anode: see ELECTRODE.
1834. Faraday, Res. Electr. (1839), § 663. The cathode is that surface at which the current leaves the decomposing body, and is its positive extremity.
1839. Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., I. 100. The lower electrode formed the cathode.
1870. R. Ferguson, Electr., 161. The poles … are called electrodes … the – pole being called the cathode.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 219. The deposit was formed in twenty-four hours upon the whole of the cathode.
1881. Metal World, No. 9. 131. The object to be coppered is to be … attached as a cathode … when it will become rapidly coated with an adherent film of metallic copper.
1883. E. H. Gordon, Electr. & Magn. (ed. 2), II. 1. The electrode attached to the zinc of the battery is called the cathode, and the other, the anode.
