Etymology

photoconductivity

Today it means: The increase in the electrical conductivity of a material as a result of incident electromagnetic radiation. Full definition →

English conductivity ← Ancient Greek φωτο- (phōto-) ← Proto-Hellenic *pʰáwos
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*bʰeh₂-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*bʰéh₂os
  3. Proto-Hellenic*pʰáwos
  4. Ancient Greekφᾰ́ος (phắos)
  5. Ancient Greekφῶς (phôs)
  6. Ancient Greekφωτο- (phōto-)
  7. Englishphoto-
  8. Englishconduct
  9. Englishconductive
  10. Englishconductivity
  11. English todayphotoconductivity

From photo- + conductivity.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.