Galvanizes

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To stimulate or excite someone into action or increased effort ; to coat metal with a layer of zinc to prevent rusting
2. To provoke a sudden response or enthusiasm in a person or group ; to protect metal surfaces from corrosion by covering them with zinc
3. To rouse or spur into energetic activity or awareness ; to treat iron or steel with zinc to guard against rust

Etymology: The word is an inflected form, the third-person singular of "galvanize", so the story belongs to the verb itself. It is named after Luigi Galvani, the Italian physiologist (1737–1798) who discovered that electricity could make dead frogs' legs twitch. His experiments, which he took to show that animal tissue carried its own "animal electricity", made him a celebrity of late eighteenth-century science. The verb came into English from French "galvaniser", built from "galvano-", a combining form of Galvani's name, plus the common verb ending "-ize". Its first sense was literal and technical: to stimulate muscles or nerves with an electric current, and later to coat iron with zinc by electrolysis, a process also called galvanizing. The figurative sense of shocking someone into sudden activity grew out of that picture of a jolt of current making a limb jerk to life.

Synonyms: stimulates, motivates, energizes, inspires, activates

Antonyms: dissuades, discourages, deactivates, stifles, calms