resistor

Etymology

It is formed from English resist + -or,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} with the suffix as in capacitor and inductor.^[2] Resist is from Old French resister (“to hold out against”) and resistō (“to make a stand against”),^[7][8] from re- (“against”) and sistō (“to take a stand”),^[7] from Proto-Indo-European *sta- (“to stand”).^[7] The OED compares the earlier resister, which it forms from the verb with -er and dates to 1459, with the spelling resistour among its forms.^[2] Etymonline instead treats that spelling as this word's own early form, an agent noun in Latin shape.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A device with a set electrical resistance: 1905 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged and in the OED's dating of its entry,^[3][2] 1900–05 in Dictionary.com,^[5] with the OED's first printed quotation from 1907, from A. Stansfield's book on the electric furnace.^[2]

Semantic evolution

English had long had a noun spelled resistour or resister for a person who hinders or opposes, and by the 1580s for a thing that resists.^[7][2] In the 19th century resister was the usual spelling, at least in the United States, and it served in the science of electricity too, from 1759.^[7] Since about 1900 the device has been a resistor, and resister is left for people.^[7] The -or form matches the names of other circuit components, capacitor and inductor.^[2] Etymonline derives transistor from transfer and resistor,^[7] and the OED offers that blend or else trans- with -istor.^[2]

Timeline

• late 14th century – resistour, one who resists or hinders.^[7] The OED first records resister for a person in 1459.^[2]
• 1580s – that which resists.^[7]
• 1759 – resister used in the science of electricity.^[7]
• 1905 – a device of known resistance in an electric circuit.^[3][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A component of an electric circuit with a known resistance, used to limit the current or to produce a drop in voltage.^{[9][10][2][3]}
2. Anything that resists.^[11]

Word family

• transistor
• thermistor
• varistor

Related words

• resist
• resistance
• resister

Usage notes

Resister is the usual spelling for a person who resists, and resistor for the electrical device.^[7][2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers