the.com/electric charge

means A fundamental property of matter that makes particles push or pull on each other through electric and magnetic forces — positive and negative, attracting opposites and repelling their own kind.

from Traces back to Greek 'elektron,' meaning amber — because rubbing amber with cloth makes it attract light bits of straw or hair, a trick known since antiquity. The word 'electricity' was coined from this root in the 1600s to describe that mysterious attractive force, and 'charge' comes from the older sense of loading or filling something up, borrowed from artillery and cargo — to 'charge' a body meant to fill it with this invisible electric stuff, the way you'd charge a gun with powder.