Technology

He lost me when he said the cathode was negatively charged and the anion was positively charged... It's the other way around, right?

In my mind, cat- means positive and an- means negative. This isn't the mandela effect, right?

A cation is a positively charged ion with fewer electrons than protons[2] (e.g. K+ (potassium ion)) while an anion is a negatively charged ion with more electrons than protons[3] (e.g. Cl− (chloride ion) and OH− (hydroxide ion)).

From wikipedia article on ions.

However, their anode article is nore cagey:

An anode usually is an electrode of a polarized electrical device through which conventional current enters the device. This contrasts with a cathode, which is usually an electrode of the device through which conventional current leaves the device. A common mnemonic is ACID, for anode current into device.^[1]^ The direction of conventional current (the flow of positive charges) in a circuit is opposite to the direction of electron flow, so (negatively charged) electrons flow from the anode of a galvanic cell, into an outside or external circuit connected to the cell. For example, the end of a household battery marked with a + is the cathode (while discharging).

So the + side is the cathode only when discharging?

And then here on the electrolysis page of wikipedia, they have labeled the positive side Anode and the negative side cathode.??

Illustration of a Hofmann electrolysis apparatus used in a school laboratory

Does it seem crazy to anyone else that cathode and anode are not always the same as cation and anion, and flip meanings when charging or discharging?

Is there a way for this to make sense?

What is this "Charge into device" language?