Death or severe injury caused by electric shock. The act of killing someone by means of electric current.
A portmanteau of 'electro-' and 'execution', coined in 1889 during debates about the electric chair in New York. The word was created specifically for this new method of capital punishment.
This word is barely 135 years old, making it one of the youngest words in common use - it had to be invented because humanity had never needed to describe this particular cause of death before electricity became widespread. The word's creation coincided with the 'War of Currents' between Edison and Tesla.
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