Emily Dickinson Lexicon

E-LEC-TION-EER'ER, n.

One who electioneers.

E-LEC'TION-EER-ING, n.

The arts or practices used for securing the choice of one to office.

E-LEC'TION-EER-ING, ppr.

Using influence to procure the election of a person.

E-LECT'IVE, a.

1. Dependent on choice, as an elective monarchy, in which the king is raised to the throne by election; opposed to hereditary.
2. Bestowed or passing by election; as, an office is elective.
3. Pertaining to or consisting in choice or right of choosing; as, elective franchise.
4. Exerting the power of choice; as, an elective act.
5. Selecting for combination; as, an elective attraction, which is a tendency in bodies to unite with certain kinds of matter in preference to others.

E-LECT'IVE-LY, adv.

By choice; with preference of one to another.

E-LECT'OR, n.

One who elects; or one who has the right of choice; a person who has, by law or constitution, the right of voting for an officer. In free governments, the people, or such of them as possess certain qualifications of age, character, and property, are the electors of their representatives, &c., in parliament, assembly, or other legislative body. In the United States, certain persons are appointed or chosen to be electors of the president or chief magistrate. In Germany, certain princes were formerly electors of the emperor, and elector was one of their titles, as the elector of Saxony.

E-LECT'OR-AL, a.

Pertaining to election or electors. The electoral college in Germany consisted of all the electors of the empire, being nine in number, six secular princes and three archbishops.

E-LEC-TOR-AL'I-TY, n. [for Electorate, is not used.]

E-LECT'OR-ATE, n.

1. The dignity of an elector in the German empire.
2. The territory of an elector in the German empire.

E-LEC'TRE, n. [L. electrum.]

Amber. [Bacon used this word for a compound or mixed metal. But the word is not now used.]

E-LECT'RESS, n.

The wife or widow of an elector in the German empire. Chesterfield.

E-LEC'TRIC, or E-LEC'TRIC-AL, a. [Fr. electrique; It. elettrico; Sp. electrico; from L. electrum, Gr. ηλεκτρον, amber.]

1. Containing electricity, or capable of exhibiting it when excited by friction; as, an electric body, such as amber and glass; an electric substance.
2. In general, pertaining to electricity; as, electric power or virtue; electric attraction or repulsion; electric fluid.
3. Derived from or produced by electricity; as, electrical effects; electric vapor; electric shock.
4. Communicating a shock like electricity; as, the electric eel or fish.

E-LEC'TRIC, n.

Any body or substance capable of exhibiting electricity by means of friction or otherwise, and of resisting the passage of it from one body to another. Hence an electric is called a non-conductor, an electric per se. Such are amber, glass, resin, wax, gum-lac, sulphur, &c.

E-LEC'TRIC-AL-LY, adv.

In the manner of electricity, or by means of it.

E-LEC-TRI'CIAN, n.

A person who studies electricity; and investigates its properties, by observation and experiments; one versed in the science of electricity.

E-LEC-TRIC'I-TY, n.

The operations of a very subtil fluid which appears to be diffused through most bodies, remarkable for the rapidity of its motion, and one of the most powerful agents in nature. The name is given to the operations of this fluid, and to the fluid itself. As it exists in bodies, it is denominated a property of those bodies, though it may be a distinct substance, invisible, intangible and imponderable. When an electric body is rubbed with a soft dry substance, as with woolen cloth, silk or fur, it attracts or repels light substances, at a greater or less distance, according to the strength of the electric virtue; and the friction may be continued, or increased, till the electric body will emit sparks or flashes resembling fire, accompanied with a sharp sound. When the electric fluid passes from cloud to cloud, from the clouds to the earth, or from the earth to the clouds, it is called lightning, and produces thunder. Bodies which, when rubbed, exhibit this property, are called electrics or non-conductors. Bodies which, when excited, do not exhibit this property, as water and metals, are called non-electrics or conductors, as they readily convey electricity from one body to another, at any distance, and such is the rapidity of the electric fluid in motion, that no perceptible space of time is required for its passage to any known distance. Cavallo. Encyc. It is doubted by modern philosophers whether electricity is a fluid or material substance. Electricity, according to Professor Silliman, is a power which causes repulsion and attraction between the masses of bodies under its influence; a power which causes the heterogeneous particles of bodies to separate, thus producing chimical decomposition; one of the causes of magnetism.

E-LEC'TRI-FI-A-BLE, a. [from electrify.]

1. Capable of receiving electricity, or of being charged with it; that may become electric. Fourcroy.
2. Capable of receiving and transmitting the electrical fluid.

E-LEC-TRI-FI-CA'TION, n.

The act of electrifying, or state of being charged with electricity. Encyc. art. Bell.

E-LEC'TRI-FI-ED, pp.

Charged with electricity. Encyc.

E-LEC'TRI-FY, v.i.

To become electric.

E-LEC'TRI-FY, v.t.

1. To communicate electricity to; to charge with electricity. Encyc. Cavallo.
2. To cause electricity to pass through; to affect by electricity; to give an electric shock to.
3. To excite suddenly; to give a sudden shock; as, the whole assembly was electrified.

E-LEC'TRI-FY-ING, ppr.

Charging with electricity; affecting with electricity; giving a sudden shock.

E-LEC'TRINE, a. [L. electrum.]

Belonging to amber.

E-LEC-TRI-ZA'TION, n.

The act of electrizing. Ure.

E-LEC'TRIZE, v.t. [Fr. electriser.]

To electrify; a word in popular use.