[citation needed] The word electric was first used by Francis Bacon to describe materials like amber that attracted other objects.
[1][2] The first usage of the English word electricity is ascribed to Sir Thomas Browne in his 1646 work, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: Again, 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 placedIn this context, an "Electrick" or "Electrick body" was a non-conductor, or an object capable of attracting "light bodies" (like bits of paper) when excited by friction; a piece of amber is "an Electrick", while a piece of iron is not.
It appears frequently in the writings of Franklin, Faraday, Maxwell, Millikan, and J. J. Thomson, and was even occasionally used by Einstein.
These multiple definitions are probably the reason that quantity of electricity has fallen into disfavor among scientists.