The exchange or substitution of one thing for another, or in electrical engineering, the switching of electric current direction.
From Latin commutatio, derived from commutare (to exchange or change). Used in legal contexts since medieval times to mean reducing a sentence, and in electrical engineering since the 1800s for current reversal.
A prison sentence commutation and an electrical commutator are the same word at heart—both involve 'exchanging' something for something else. The legal meaning came first, then scientists borrowed it for the switching mechanism.
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