Faraday consults the scholars: the origins of the terms of electrochemistry

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Hardly any original thoughts on mental or social subjects ever make their way among mankind, or assume their proper importance in the mind even of their inventors, until aptly selected words or phrases have as it were nailed them down and held them fast. John Stuart Mill, A system of logic, London, 1843, 2, 285 Our scientists, since they will neoterize, would find their account in entertaining a few consulting philologists. Fitzedward Hall, Modern english, New York, 1873, p. 175 The origins of the terms of electrochemistry—electrode, electrolyte, electrolysis, anode, cathode, ion, anion and cation—are so fully documented that their story could well become the classic example of how new scientific words are invented and brought into circulation. The story tells of the extraordinary pains taken by a great scientist to secure the precision of his descriptions of facts by defining new words with explicit denotations, as well as of his respect for philological accuracy and euphony. The story is certain to benefit others who meet the same necessity for defining new terms; it has also, of course, a wider utility and interest as a footnote to the history o f science. The words were first published by Michael Faraday, F.R.S. (1791-1867) in 1834, with the barest of acknowledgements to two unnamed friends with whom, he said, ‘I have deliberately considered the subject.’ No subsequent disclosure of the identity of his friends was ever made public either by Faraday or by the two men themselves. Behind Faraday’s apparent lack of courtesy, we can detect his honest reluctance to repay the kin dness of his friends by bringing forward their names as though they were partially responsible forjudging of the advisability of coining new terms. The identities of Faraday’s two friends are now known: they were W hitlock Nicholl, F.R.S. (1786-1838), whose identity is revealed here for the first time; and William Whewell, F.R.S. (1794-1866), a famous Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, whose identity was disclosed in 1868 by John Tyndall, F.R.S. (1).