Originally, a property of amber and certain other nonconducting substances to attract lightweight material when rubbed, or the cause of this property; now understood to be a phenomenon caused by the distribution and movement of charged subatomic particles and their interaction with the electromagnetic field. (defdate)
1646, (w), Pseudodoxia Epidemica, 1st edition, p. 51:
The concretion of Ice will not endure a dry attrition without liquation; for if it be rubbed long with a cloth, it melteth. But Crystal will calefie unto electricity; that is, a power to attract strawes and light bodies, and convert the needle freely placed.
1747, (w), letter, 28 Jul 1747:
Restoring the equilibrium in the bottle does not at all affect the Electricity in the man.
1837, William Leithead, Electricity, p. 5:
Attraction, then, is the first phenomenon that arrests our attention, and it is one that is constantly attendant on excitation. It is therefore considered a sure indicator of the presence of electricity in an active state, and forms the basis of all its tests.
We may express all these results in a concise and consistent manner by describing an electrified body as charged with a certain quantity of electricity, which we may denote by e.
2011, Jon Henley, The Guardian, 29 Mar 2011:
How does it work, though? It's based on the observation made some 200 years ago that electricity can change the shape of flames.
The study of electrical phenomena; the branch of science dealing with such phenomena. (defdate)
(quote-journal)|date=28 September 2016|passage=The electricity was crackling around Celtic Park even before a ball had been kicked, the home crowd unleashing noise and colour and every ounce of passion in their bodies on the visitors.
Householders could one day be producing as much electricity as all the country's nuclear power stations combined, thanks to the revolutionary application of a device developed in the early 19th century.