means The property of an electrical conductor by which a change in current induces a voltage that opposes that change, measured in henries.

from From the Latin 'inducere,' to lead in (in- 'into' + 'ducere' to lead) — the same root that gives us 'induce' and 'conduct.' The electrical sense grew up in the 19th century alongside the discovery of electromagnetic induction; the noun 'inductance' itself is a later formation, stitching the physics of 'induct' onto the abstract '-ance' ending. The unit, the henry, honors Joseph Henry, an American physicist who studied the effect.