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Comment by hwillis | Hacker News Reader

> Electrocution can refer to both death and injury via electrical shock.

I don't like being pedantic about language but given that the word is literally just a portmanteau of electricity and execution it's stupid to use it to refer to something other than death. It's not like execution can refer to someone being hurt. The only reason to use it to describe something nonlethal is because you don't realize that execution is part of the word.

Besides, "electrocuted" is a useful word and much less cumbersome than "killed via electrocution". We already have shock, arc, flash and burn for injuries and no other word to clarify lethality.

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Language and meaning evolves. Dictionaries aren't prescriptive, they report how words are used. Electrocution is currently defined as killed or injured by electricity by both Websters and Oxford, so it's a meaning that's caught on both sides of the Atlantic.

So I think that ship has sailed, whether you like it or not.

My point is that the definition of execution hasn't changed, and derived words shouldn't either, to minimize confusion.

This is also a plea from an actual electrical engineer, because we generally use it to refer to death. It would be nice if everyone else did too because it's useful.

That is not how it is interpreted in professional engineering circles. Take a look at the definition of electrocution in the international electrotechnical vocabulary: http://www.electropedia.org/iev/iev.nsf/display?openform&iev...

"To electrocute" is a lot like "to hang" or "to bisect" or "to draw and quarter": it's a way to attempt to kill something. It doesn't necessarily succeed. You can be electrocuted successfully, or electrocuted unsuccessfully. Suffering an "electrocution injury" is like suffering a "hanging-related injury": it means that something tried to kill you, and you escaped less-than-fully dead. In legal terms, it's what causes someone to be charged with the crime of attempted murder.

I disagree with that the word shock or severe shock would (should) be used not electrocution.

Electrocution means death by electricity and shock is damage by electricity up to but not including electrocution.

This reminds me of a "hilarious" conversation I had one time when I was in the casualty ward of the local hospital.

"So there I was at home and I cut through an electrical cable with some scissors."

"And you came to A&E because you got shocked?"

"Well I was shocked, yes. I didn't expect the cable to be live, there was a big bang and all the lights went off"

"OK you've had an electric shock?"

"No I was surprised, I was not electrocuted"

"So why are you here ..?"

(Paranoid partner made me go, though I was certain I was fine. Had some fluid taken from my spine; apparently electric shocks can cause "stuff to break down" and they were gonna use the fluid to confirm whether I'd been hit by electricity or not.)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/electrocute

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/englis...

https://www.etymonline.com/word/electrocute

Not sure if "to bisect" and "to draw and quarter" are so similar here. I mean, if you say that someone is bisected, or drawn and quartered, the meaning is pretty much that he's dead!

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