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Comment by JoeAltmaier | Hacker News Reader

Electrocute may also mean to injure, not just to kill...

The chain was probably the cell ground? Unless the Leyden jar had a different ground wire, which seems improbable. Likely he got it straight across the chest.

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"Electrocute" is a portmanteau of "electricity" and "execute".

Sure, but in practice it's used to mean just being electrically shocked. Words aren't tied to the meaning implied by their etymology.

In French we have two words, "électrisation" for non-lethal shock and "électrocution" for when death occurs.

Most people I know still use "éléctrocuté" to describe what happens to them when they get shocked from an electrical outlet.

I do not find that to be the case in practice, I occasionally here it used like that, but consider it misuse.

I suspect a dictionary might accept it as an 'informal' alternative to the main 'death by' definition.

No need to speculate on what a dictionary might say. We can actually consult one. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/electrocute

Thank you - it did feel a little silly to type, but I didn't care to search online, nor to get up.

Laziness subsided, my Collins (complete, 2016) - which is a rather accepting dictionary of new-fangled words or usages - has only two definitions, both involving death. (1. to kill as a result of electric shock; 2. (US) to execute in an electric chair).

The etymology of a word is a useful signal but it should not be mistaken to be the definition in actual usage by speakers.

If we're going purely by etymology, what does a suitcase have to do with electricity?

TIL. What other commonly understood words are portmanteaus?

You'll see them all over now.

chortle (chuckle/snort) podcast (ipod/broadcast) newscast (news/broadcast) sportscaster (sports/broadcaster) motel (motor/hotel) email (electronic/mail) blog (web/log) bit (binary/digit) chunnel (channel/tunnel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_portmanteaus

Taxicab (taximeter/cabriolet), brunch (breakfast/lunch), spork (spoon/fork), Eurasia (Europe/Asia), Brexit (Britain/exit).

Portmanteau

Smog is a big one most people don't think about (smoke/fog).

To be electrocuted has always meant death, until relatively recently. Because Englishe talking is good not, it now can mean what formerly meant "shocked".

I still prefer the specificity of death for electrocuted. Keith Relf was electrocuted, if you can still talk about it, you received an electric shock.

Edit: spelling. Make Englyish great again!

Semantic drift is inevitable and has little to do with dumbness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change

Exactly. French was once considered a bastardisation of Latin

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