Galvanize

 WORD OF THE DAY

galvanize / verb / AL-vuh-nyze

Definition
1a: to subject to the action of an electric current especially for the purpose of stimulating physiologically
1b: to stimulate or excite as if by an electric shock
2a: to coat (iron or steel) with zinc
2b: to immerse in molten zinc to produce a coating of zinc-iron alloy

Examples
"I think circumstances we've been through helped get us to this point. Whether it is the natural disaster, the pandemic or some of the tough losses … all of it helped galvanize this team."
— Dwain Jenkins, quoted in The Advocate (Louisiana), 19 Oct. 2021

The hope was that this year’s conference would serve as a shared target, to galvanize countries to do their own work figuring out how to reduce emissions domestically in the period between the Paris and Glasgow conferences.
— Time, 14 Nov. 2021

Did You Know?
Luigi Galvani was an Italian physician and physicist who, in the 1770s, studied the electrical nature of nerve impulses by applying electrical stimulation to frogs' leg muscles, causing them to contract.
Although Galvani's theory that animal tissue contained an innate electrical impulse was disproven, the French word galvanisme came to describe a current of electricity especially when produced by chemical action.
English borrowed the word as galvanism, and shortly after the verb galvanize came to life.