bibliolater , to linguistics group
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The Shocking Origin of the Word “Electric”

Gilbert employed the Latin electricus to describe the observation that when you rub amber against some substances like wool or a cat’s fur, it sticks to the amber. We now that this clinging—and the zaps that appear between the amber and the substance rubbed against it—is due to static, but at the time, Gilbert supposed amber to be magnetic.

https://uselessetymology.com/2024/05/31/the-shocking-origin-of-the-word-electric/

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attribution: Benoît Prieur, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://tinyurl.com/374cd39t

bibliolater , to linguistics group
@bibliolater@qoto.org avatar

The Shocking Origin of the Word “Electric”

Gilbert employed the Latin electricus to describe the observation that when you rub amber against some substances like wool or a cat’s fur, it sticks to the amber. We now that this clinging—and the zaps that appear between the amber and the substance rubbed against it—is due to static, but at the time, Gilbert supposed amber to be magnetic.

https://uselessetymology.com/2024/05/31/the-shocking-origin-of-the-word-electric/

@linguistics

attribution: Benoît Prieur, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Page URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ampoule_et_filament_%C3%A0Alchimie3.0%C3%A0Rillieux-la-Pape(octobre_2021).jpg

bibliolater , to linguistics group
@bibliolater@qoto.org avatar

“Four factors are found to be significant predictors of the position of primary stress: endings, word complexity, the segmental structure of the final syllable, and syllable count. Moreover, this study confirms previous observations on the tendency for American English to have more final stress in French loanwords than British English.”

Dabouis, Q. and Fournier, P. (2024) ‘Stress in French loanwords in British and American English’, Journal of Linguistics, pp. 1–26. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226724000136.

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