Etymology - Energy

Joy, rapture, bliss. No not synonyms for energy, merely a reflection of how much I love it when things turn out to be one way and not another.

I'm running into energy as a concept used by performance theorists and others, when looking at how we make/receive meaning when confronted with performance (in its broadest sense, which can include simply focusing our engaged attention on a stationary object). I was wondering why they had taken on such a scientific term.

Of course it isn't a scientific term at all. The earliest recorded meanings in fact relate to "force or vigour of expression", apparently as a result of misunderstanding Aristotle's usage of the Greek term which means energy or work. Its use in physics only comes much later. (OED provides)

Along the way, it has refered to the exercise of power to produce action, working, the vigour or intensity of utterances and other actions, and therefore also been used as a characteristic of an individual.

I am intrigued in the connection with work... because obvious work or effort in performance can be a limiting factor to the performance energy... but without work or effort on some level the performance may be felt to have no energy...