电 diàn is a simplified form of 電, which originated as a pictograph showing lightning (申 shēn, a zigzag bolt) descending from a rain cloud (雨 yǔ). The original oracle-bone and bronze-script forms are dramatically vivid: a cloud at the top with a serpentine lightning bolt zigzagging downward. This was the natural phenomenon, lightning during a storm, before the character was drafted to name the force of modernity.

The traditional character 電 retains the rain radical 雨 above and the lightning component 申 below. In the simplification of 1956–1964, the rain component was reduced and the character compressed to 电, five strokes versus thirteen. The simplification loses some visual poetry but preserves the phonetic connection (申 shēn is the phonetic component; the initial consonant shifted across millennia of phonological change).

电 underwent one of the most remarkable semantic expansions in the history of Chinese. Originally denoting only lightning, it was appropriated in the 19th century as Chinese encountered Western electrical technology. Every new electrical technology received a 电 compound: telegraph (电报), telephone (电话), electricity itself as utility (电力/用电). When digital technology arrived, 电 extended further: 电脑 (computer, "electric brain"), 电子 (electronics, "electric child"), 电商 (e-commerce).