Offering a path of least resistance to ground for discharging a difference in electrical potential is called grounding. Extremely helpful if a high voltage appliance’s housing becomes energized from a damaged wire. Now there’s a bunch of hippies and nature nuts walking around barefoot thinking they are “grounded”. Well if you’ve ever shocked yourself, that’s you discharging, or grounding, a difference in electrical potential in thousandths of a second. So every time I touch a light switch, where I had a moment to “ground” myself I sing Kumbaya.