Anode
/ˈæn.oʊd/noun
The electrode through which conventional current enters a polarized electrical device.
Did you know?Faraday’s 19th-century electrical vocabulary borrowed Greek words for “way” and “path,” so the anode’s name is a linguistic map of movement, not just a piece of metal.
Etymological Timeline
Ancient Greek
Greek
anodos
“a going up, ascent; a way up”
1830s
English
anode
“Faraday’s term for the electrode where current enters an electrolytic cell”
Modern English
English
anode
“the positively charged electrode in an electrolytic cell, or the electrode by which current enters a device”
Ancient Greek
Greek
hodos
“road, way, path”
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*sodʰ-o-
“going, path, way”