The name abampere was introduced by Kennelly in 1903 as a short name for the long name (absolute) electromagnetic cgs unit of current that was in use since the adoption of the cgs system in 1875.[3] The abampere was coherent with the emu-cgs system, in contrast to the ampere, the practical unit of current that had been adopted too in 1875.
The other units in this system related to the abampere are:
abcoulomb – the charge that passes in one second through any cross section of a conductor carrying a steady current of one abampere
abhenry – the self-inductance of a circuit or the mutual inductance of two circuits in which the variation of current at the rate of one abampere per second results in an induced electromotive force of one abvolt
abohm – the resistance of a conductor that, with a constant current of one abampere through it, maintains between its terminals a potential difference of one abvolt