GC: n

CT: The best way to understand electricity is to start by giving it its proper name: electrical energy. If you want to run anything electrical, from a toaster or a toothbrush to an MP3 player or a television, you need to feed it a steady supply of electrical energy. Where are you going to get that from? There’s a basic law of physics called the conservation of energy that explains how you can get energy—and how you can’t. According to this law, there’s a fixed amount of energy in the universe and some good news and some bad news about what we can do with it. The bad news is that we can’t create more energy than we have already; the good news is that we can’t destroy any energy either. All we can ever do with energy is convert it from one form into another.
If you want to find some electricity to power your television, you won’t be making energy out of thin air: the conservation of energy tells us that’s impossible. What you’ll be doing is using energy converted from some other form into the electrical energy you need. Generally, that happens in a power plant some distance from your home. Plug in your TV and electrical energy flows into it through a cable. The cable is much longer than you might think: it actually runs all the way from your TV—underground or through the air—to the power plant where electrical energy is being prepared for you from an energy-rich fuel such as coal, oil, gas, or atomic fuel. In these eco-friendly times, some of your electricity will also be coming from wind turbines, hydroelectric power plants (which make power using the energy in dammed rivers), or geothermal energy (Earth’s internal heat). Wherever your energy comes from, it’ll almost certainly be turned into electricity with the help of a generator. Only solar cells make electricity without using generators.

S: http://www.explainthatstuff.com/generators.html (last access: 21 December 2014)

N: 1. generator (n): 1640s, “person or thing that generates,” from Latin generator “a begetter, producer,” agent noun from past participle stem of generare. Meaning “machine that generates power” first recorded 1794; in sense of “machine that generates electric energy,” 1879. Fem. generatrix attested from 1650s.
2. In the field of Electrical Appliances and Equipment: An apparatus used to transform some sort of energy into electrical energy. French equivalent: générateur.
3. In the field of Electric Rotary Machines – Types: A machine that converts mechanical power into electrical power. French equivalent: génératrice.
4. There are two basic types of generator, the alternator and the dynamo which produce alternating current and direct current respectively.
5. generator: term standardized by the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission).

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=generator&searchmode=none (last access: 21 December 2014). 2, 3, 4 & 5. TERMIUMPLUS.

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CR: alternator, rotor , stator.