Etymology

milliwatt

M3I1L1L1I1W4A1T1T1

Today it means: One thousandth (10⁻³) of a watt, an amount of power that can power a small electronic device such as a single microchip. (Consuming 1 milliwatt during a duration of 1 hour consumes 1 milliwatt-hour of energy.). Full definition →

English watt ← French milli- ← Latin mīlle
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*sem-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*sm̥-
  3. Proto-Indo-European*smih₂
  4. Proto-Indo-European*ǵʰes-
  5. Proto-Indo-European*ǵʰéslom
  6. Proto-Indo-European*ǵʰéslih₂
  7. Proto-Indo-European*smih₂ǵʰéslih₂
  8. Proto-Italic*smīɣeslī
  9. Latinmīlle
  10. Frenchmilli-
  11. Englishmilli-
  12. Englishwatt
  13. English todaymilliwatt

From milli- + watt.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.