The term "Electrocute"

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DBoone

DBoone

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Location
Mississippi
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General Contractor
I was reading about the Kentucky firefighters that got into a power line while participating in an "ice bucket challenge" and the article talked about the electricity "electrocuting" the firefighters. After reading the article I found out the guys were just injured, not dead.

I always have been told "electrocution" meant death but after looking up the definition of "electrocute" it says "injure or kill someone by electric shock".

Learn something new everyday I guess.
 
I was always taught electrocution in our business means death (bye bye) . Being shocked means you get to live another day and tell your story.
 
One of the online articles apparently had the same problem.
The headline said four dead while the body of the article said four electrocuted, of whom three were in hospital and one has been released.
 
DBoone said:
I was reading about the Kentucky firefighters that got into a power line while participating in an "ice bucket challenge" and the article talked about the electricity "electrocuting" the firefighters. After reading the article I found out the guys were just injured, not dead.

I always have been told "electrocution" meant death but after looking up the definition of "electrocute" it says "injure or kill someone by electric shock".

Learn something new everyday I guess.
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I have discovered that the word has 2 meanings, depending on who you are. General public vs trades man.

Just about every single news article I read uses shock and electrocute interchangeably. Ive even brought it up in the comments section only to get loads of responses saying I am wrong. In fact, if you Google the term or look it up in half of dictionaries it says "injure" "shock" in addition to kill.



However, in training manuals/ electrical literature the term is reserved to mean death by shock or "to kill with electricity".


IMO, from reading literature the word originally meant only to kill. Such as in execute, the electro part was added. However, the general public as always gave the word a new meaning:roll:
 
DBoone said:
I always have been told "electrocution" meant death but after looking up the definition of "electrocute" it says "injure or kill someone by electric shock".
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I have an "old" dictionary" and electrocution is defined as death.

But the meaning of words often change when people start to use them in different ways.
The gay 90s of the 19th century had a different meaning than the gay 90s of the 20th century.

I can still remember when bad actually meant bad.
 
The media is the poster child for the phrase "jack of all trades; master of none".

They are not "experts" on anything (and not even spelling & grammar nowadays). That's why they always cite "experts" and "officials". I remember the first time I was in the media as a "city official" and they made me out to be the smartest person on the subject there is. Thing is I was on the job about 4 days at the time; had no idea what I was doing.

Take lightly what you see in the media. Half is based on fact and the rest is assumed; of the assumed some of that is right and some is wrong.
 
Something I didn't know till I contacted the technical editor at a major dictionary about an entry is that dictionaries are descriptive rather than prescriptive.

That is they describe common or popular usage but don't dictate how a word would be properly used.

For example, some dictionaries list both KHz or kHz as equally common and I've even seen KHz used in some technical encyclopedias versus the correct kHz. Likewise for Kbits or Kbytes, when of course per BIPM, the body that regulates SI units, the only proper abbreviation for kilo is a lower case 'k'.

When I discussed this with the technical editor at the dictionary he said it doesn't matter what is technically correct, dictionaries describe common or popular usage.

So there must be enough people out there using both meanings for electrocute . . .
 
DarylH said:
Something I didn't know till I contacted the technical editor at a major dictionary about an entry is that dictionaries are descriptive rather than prescriptive.

That is they describe common or popular usage but don't dictate how a word would be properly used.

For example, some dictionaries list both KHz or kHz as equally common and I've even seen KHz used in some technical encyclopedias versus the correct kHz. Likewise for Kbits or Kbytes, when of course per BIPM, the body that regulates SI units, the only proper abbreviation for kilo is a lower case 'k'.

When I discussed this with the technical editor at the dictionary he said it doesn't matter what is technically correct, dictionaries describe common or popular usage.

So there must be enough people out there using both meanings for electrocute . . .
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Indeed.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/ain't
 
good they were not westinhoused.

[h=2]Current wars[/h][h=3]Edison's publicity campaign[/h]He (Edison) also tried to popularize the term for being electrocuted as being "Westinghoused".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents
 
ActionDave said:
Electrocute means kill.
Electrocuted means dead.
Never trust the news media.
I knew all that even before I was an electrician.
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:lol: My all time favorite is a downed wire being called a transformer explosion. And a failed transformer being called a substation:happyno: Once you learn what is really happening you realize media is a great disservice to reality.
 
mbrooke said:
:lol: My all time favorite is a downed wire being called a transformer explosion. And a failed transformer being called a substation:happyno: Once you learn what is really happening you realize media is a great disservice to reality.
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The purpose of the media is to sell. Not to educate.
 
growler said:
I have an "old" dictionary" and electrocution is defined as death.

But the meaning of words often change when people start to use them in different ways.
The gay 90s of the 19th century had a different meaning than the gay 90s of the 20th century.

I can still remember when bad actually meant bad.
Click to expand...

Don't worry, Gramps. Bad means bad again. Even when used as a compliment, the compliment refers to being bad, not good. See: bad@ss, bad mofo, etc.

:cool:
 
"Shock" means shock. "Electrocute" means shock to death.That's why there are two different words!

I hate when people go change the meanings of words by using them wrong. But I'm an old guy and now I'll stop complaining.
 
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