Resister vs. Resistor

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Grammarist

A resister is one who resists, stands firm against something, refuses compliance or withstands temptation. A resister may also be a coating that protects a surface during some processes. Related words are resist, resists, resisted, resisting, resistible, resistibility, resistibly. Resister appears in the late fourteenth century from the Old French word resister, meaning hold out against.

A resistor is an electrical component that resists the passage of electricity. It is used to control electrical current. The original spelling of resister, in the 1300s, was resistor. Later, in 1905, resistor came to mean the electrical component.

Examples

Joshua Key is a high-profile American war resister who, having served a tour of duty in Iraq, refused to return for a second, choosing instead to seek refuge in Canada in 2005. (The Winnipeg Free Press)

Lone resister: West Indies’ Marlon Samuels picks up runs during his unbeaten 110 t as Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper Kusal Perera watches during the third One-Day International in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, yesterday. (The Trinidad Express)

When Army Sergeant Patrick Hart decided a decade ago that he would not serve in the war in Iraq, he expected to follow the same path as thousands of American war resisters during the Vietnam era and take refuge across the border. (The Globe and Mail)

Schnorr told Wired.com C2Sense uses a new material that chemically reacts to ethylene as a resistor in a small electrical circuit. (The Christian Science Monitor)

He confirmed that the company was investigating the resistor that controls the speed, the fan motor and the pollen filter at the top of the heater system. (The Guardian)

The Foil Technology Products section contains foil resistor and strain gage controlling sections. (Dakota Financial News)

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