The process of coating metal with zinc to prevent rust, or figuratively, stimulating someone into sudden action or awareness.
From galvanize, derived from Luigi Galvani (1737-1798), an Italian physicist who discovered galvanism. The term was coined after his experiments with electricity and animal tissues showed electricity could produce motion.
Galvani's experiments with frog legs actually helped prove electricity existed—when he made dead frog muscles twitch using electrical currents, he proved the body uses electricity to move!
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