the.com/power cord
The only cable you trip on at 3am that actually loves you back.
means The insulated cable that carries electricity from an outlet into a device so it can actually turn on.
from A plain compound, not a clever one: 'power' from Old French 'pouair' (to be able), tracing back to Latin 'posse,' meaning 'to be able' — and 'cord' from Old French 'corde,' from Latin 'chorda,' originally a gut string or rope. The electrical sense of 'cord' is a 19th/20th-century extension, once wiring became something you ran along a floor rather than something you plucked or tied.
- origin
- predates USB by over a century
- color code
- often gray so you lose it instantly
- universal law
- always one inch too short
- real danger
- stepping on the plug end barefoot