galvanize (2009-07-01)

Part of Speech: verb

Pronunciation: [‘gal-vê-nIz]

Definition: (1) To subject to an electric current in order to stimulate; by extension, to excite as by an electric shock. Also, to react as if shocked by electricity. (2) To coat iron or steel with zinc.

Usage: We have all been galvanized out of complacency and it is seldom pleasant, "Roderick was the untouchable big man on campus until Esteban arrived and galvanized him into minding his manners with the ladies." (He even had to scramble to find a study group that would have him.) If you’ve ever had a run-in with real electricity, it is also a memorable experience, "Frieda was literally galvanized, standing in her flooded basement barefoot, when she pulled the frayed electric cord of her old refrigerator from the outlet.

Suggested Usage: Here is an example of how language takes more time to change than technology does. Formerly, iron or steel was coated by zinc through electrical deposition, but now it is more commonly dipped into melted zinc after being cleansed in an acid bath. The old name remains, though. In British and Australian English, the ending is usually spelled -ise. "Galvanization" is the noun and "galvanizer" is the personal noun.

Etymology: Luigi Galvani (1737-1798), an Italian physiologist, is the eponym of today’s word. During the 1790s, he asserted that animal tissues generate electricity. He wasn’t correct, but his experiments (called "galvanism"), in which he made frog muscles twitch by jolting them with a spark from an electrostatic machine, stimulated an acceleration of research on electricity.