A positively charged ion in chemistry that is attracted to the cathode (negative electrode) during electrolysis.
From Greek 'kation,' the present participle of 'kienai' (to go), literally 'going down.' The term was coined in the 1830s to describe ions moving toward the cathode in electrical experiments.
The terms 'cation' and 'anion' were invented by chemist Michael Faraday in the 1830s using Greek etymology—showing how scientists deliberately created elegant paired terms to describe electrical phenomena they'd just discovered.
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