A.Word.A.Day --galvanic

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May 13, 2024

This week’s theme
Eponyms

This week’s words
galvanic
stan
maecenatism
alastor
Pygmalion

Luigi Galvani experimenting on frogs, assisted by his wife Lucia Galeazzi

Art: Antonio Muzzi, 1862

Previous week’s theme
Words related to mail

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Sometimes we name a person after a word.

Consider the names Hope, Charity, Chastity (what a burdensome name to saddle a person with), Mercy, and so on.

Less often, we name a word after a person.

For example, the words boycott, atlas, and guy are all coined after someone.

A word coined after someone is called an eponym, from Greek epi- (upon) + -onym (name). You have to do something really good, bad, or unique for a word to be coined after you.

This week we’ll feature such words, words coined after people who may be real, fictional, mythical, or literary.

What eponyms would you like to coin after someone in your personal life or someone widely known. Share below or email us at words@wordsmith.org. Include your location (city, state).

galvanic

PRONUNCIATION:

(gal-VAN-ik)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Stimulating; energizing; shocking.
2. Relating to electric current, especially direct current.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Luigi Galvani (1737-1798), physician and physicist known for his pioneering experiments on the electrical stimulation of animal tissues, which demonstrated the existence of electricity within biological organisms. Earliest documented use: 1797.

USAGE:

“[The demonetization] caused economic carnage -- but also gave digital payments a galvanic boost.”
E-Rupification; The Economist (London, UK); Jun 8, 2019.

“The face sensors supplied one set of data points. So did a device that analyzed galvanic skin response.”
Sue Halpern; Flying Aces; The New Yorker; Jan 24, 2022.

See more usage examples of galvanic in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Modern English is the Wal-Mart of languages: convenient, huge, hard to avoid, superficially friendly, and devouring all rivals in its eagerness to expand. -Mark Abley, writer and editor (b. 13 May 1955)

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