Galvanizer

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Someone who applies a protective zinc coating to metal to prevent rusting ; a machine or device used to apply a protective zinc coating to metal to prevent corrosion
2. An individual who treats metal by coating it with zinc to stop rust ; equipment designed for the purpose of adding a zinc layer onto metal surfaces to protect them
3. A worker that immerses or covers metal with zinc to avoid rust damage ; apparatus used for coating metal with zinc for anti-corrosive protection

Etymology: Galvanizer is a plain English formation: the verb "galvanize" with the agent suffix "-er" added, so it names whatever does the galvanizing, whether a worker or a machine. The verb itself comes from French "galvaniser", named after the Italian anatomist Luigi Galvani, whose experiments with electricity made muscles twitch in frogs' legs. The sense of applying electric current to stimulate the body was later extended, and the word came to mean rousing someone into sudden activity. The coating sense is a separate, more technical development. Galvanizing metal by dipping it in molten zinc was a process that took its name from that same electrical vocabulary, since the verb was applied to the zinc treatment of iron and steel. The noun then follows the usual pattern, so a galvanizer is the person or apparatus that carries out this protective coating. Because the suffix is English and productive, the word needs no further history of its own, and its meaning is the transparent sum of the verb and the suffix.

Synonyms: stimulator, activator, energizer, inspirer, inciter

Antonyms: detractor, discourager, demotivator, suppressor, inhibitor