[f. ELECTRIC + -ITY.]
1. In early use, the distinctive property of ‘electric bodies,’ like amber, glass, etc., i.e., their power when excited by friction to attract light bodies placed near them; also, the state of excitation produced in such bodies by friction. Subsequently the name was given to the cause of this phenomenon and of many others which were discovered to be of common origin with it, e.g., the electric spark, lightning, the galvanic current, etc. Franklin considered electric phenomena to be due to a subtle fluid diffused through all bodies, the excess of which above its normal quantity constituted ‘positive electricity,’ and its deficiency below the normal quantity ‘negative electricity’; but he also used ‘electricity’ as a name for the fluid itself. Others believed ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ electricity to be two distinct fluids, which when combined neutralized each other. The now prevailing view is that electricity is ‘a peculiar condition either of the molecules of the electrified body or of the ether which surrounds them’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); but the term ‘electric fluid’ survives in popular language, and the names ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ electricity (also an inheritance from Franklin’s theory) are still retained in scientific use.
Electricity may be developed by any means that produces disturbance of the molecular condition of bodies: by friction (frictional electricity), by chemical action (galvanic electricity), by heat (thermal electricity), by magnetism (magnetic electricity). Occasionally electricity and its related adjs. are used in a narrower sense with reference to the electricity produced by friction, as distinguished from galvanism or from magnetic or thermal electricity.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., II. i. 51. Crystal will calefy into electricity, that is a power to attract strawes or light bodies, and convert the needle freely placed. Ibid., iv. 79. Saltes … if gently warmed … will better discover their Electricities.
1668. Phil. Trans., III. 850. Observations about the Electricity of Bodies.
1736. Butler, Anal., II. ii. 167. Such Powers in Nature as Magnetism and Electricity.
1747. Franklin, Lett., Wks. 1840, V. 195. Restoring the equilibrium in the bottle does not at all affect the electricity in the man.
1770. Priestley, in Phil. Trans., LX. 209. The difference of the two electricities.
1794. J. Hutton, Philos. Light, &c. 232. Electricity … is distinctly different from both light and heat.
1803. Med. Jrnl., IX. 569. I began to use electricity, by small shocks.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sc., xxviii. (1849), 310. Electricity may be called into activity by mechanical power, by chemical action, by heat, and by magnetic influence.
1837. Brewster, Magnet., 273. Feebler electricities will … produce the sheets of summer lightning.
1885. S. P. Thompson, Electr. & Magn., 9. Electricity may either reside upon the surface of bodies as a charge, or flow through their substance as a current.
b. Preceded by adjs. denoting (a.) the source or mode of production, as frictional, galvanic, induced, magnetic, thermal, vital, voltaic; (b.) the place of development, as animal, atmospheric, organic; (c) the quality, as active, constant, free, negative, positive. Vitreous, resinous electricity: older synonyms for positive and negative electricity, which were first observed as resulting from the friction of glass and of resinous bodies, respectively.
1755. Franklin, Lett., 14 March, Wks. 1882, V. 341. Their negative electricity [is] increased.
1799. E. Darwin, Phytol., 310 (T.). Two electrick fluids diffused together, and strongly attracting each other; one … vitreous, the other resinous, electricity.
1832. Nat. Phil., II. Galvan., iv. § 30. 12 (Usefl. Knowl. Soc.). The circulation of voltaic electricity produces an elevation of temperature. Ibid., Electr., ii. § 49. 13. The body is said to be negatively electrified, or to have negative electricity. Ibid. Positively electrified, or to have positive electricity.
1850. trans. Humboldt’s Cosmos, III. 189. Transitions of atmospheric electricity to an opposite condition.
2. fig.
1791. Burke, Regic. Peace, i. Wks. VIII. 110. They [ambassadors] will become true conductors of contagion to every country which has had the misfortune to send them to the source of that electricity.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1858), 175. Wait a little, till the entire nation is in an electric state; till your whole vital Electricity … is cut into two isolated portions of Positive and Negative (of Money and of Hunger).
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., II. 24. The electricity of human brotherhood.
1864. Lowell, Fireside Trav., 73. The natural electricity of youth.
3. The branch of physical science that deals with the nature and phenomena of electrical action.
1734. Desaguliers, Course Exper. Philos., 450. Gray has found out several new Phenomena in Electricity.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St. Pierre’s Stud. Nat. (1799), I. 107. That new … wonderful art of electricity, which screens their hotels from the thunder.
1881. S. P. Thompson (title), Elementary Lessons in Electricity & Magnetism.
4. Comb., as electricity-laden adj.
1884. Constance F. Gordon-Cumming, in Century Mag., XXVII. 922/1. The electricity-laden rain-drops.
