▪ I. charcoal, n.
(ˈtʃɑːkəʊl)
Forms: 4–7 charcole, 5 charcolle, charkole, 6 chark(e cole, (colle, coole), cherke cole, charecole, 7 charcoll, charcoale, charecoale, char-cole, charcoale, charr-coale, 7–8 char-coal, 7– charcoal.
[The first element is of uncertain origin; from the earliest instances it appears to be char; charke, cherke, found from beg. of 16th c., being app. due to erroneous analysis of the spoken word, and having no independent origin or meaning, though afterwards (in 17th c.) used as an independent word. A current suggestion is that char- is an application of chare v. or n.1, as if turn-coal, i.e. wood turned or converted into coal; but for this no actual evidence has been found.
The name ‘coal’ itself originally meant ‘charcoal’ (collier being a ‘charcoal-burner’), and no satisfactory explanation appears of the introduction of the name charcoal in the same sense, esp. as there is no contemporary reference to ‘earth-coal’, ‘stone-coal’, ‘pit-coal’, or ‘sea-coal’ (as mineral coal was, for various reasons, called). See coal.]
1. a. The black porous pulverizable substance, consisting (when pure) wholly of carbon, obtained as the solid residue in the imperfect combustion of wood, bones, and other vegetable or animal matter. Hence specified as wood charcoal, vegetable charcoal, animal charcoal. † pit charcoal, coke (obs.).
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 875 A cheyer by-fore þe chemné, þer charcole brenned. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. xxxv, A schimnay of charcole, to chaufen the knyȝte. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 69 Charcole [Pynson charkole], carbo. 1470–1 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) III. 216 Ij skeppis carbonum vocatorum charcole. 1514 Acc. Churchw. St. Dunstan's Canterb. in Archæol. Cantiana XVII. 79 Item for ij quarters of charecole. 1562 Act 5 Eliz. c. 4 §6 Working..of any..Stone, Sea cole, stone cole, Moore cole or cherke cole. 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia iii. x. 85 Victuall, and some Char-coale for a fire. 1626 Bacon Sylva §775 Sea-coal last longer than Char-coal; and Char-coal of Roots, being coaled into great pieces, last longer than ordinary Char-coal. 1656 H. More Enthus. Tri. 26 The fumes of Charcoale, that has often made men fall down dead. 1662 Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. ii. vii. §5 A picture drawn in Charcoale. 1770 Phil. Trans. LX. 214 The inside of all pieces of pit char⁓coal is full of cavities. 1838 T. Thomson Chem. Org. Bodies 755 Animal charcoal is a much more powerful discolouring principle than vegetable charcoal. 1864 Longfellow Wayside Inn 119 A figure in shovel hat Drawn in charcoal on the wall. 1865 Jevons Coal Quest. (ed. 2) 299 Until the middle of the last century, however, iron was always made with charcoal, and a woody country was necessarily its seat. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts I. 764 Animal charcoal especially..has been much employed in the construction of filters. |
† b. = carbon n. Obs.| 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 57 Charcoal, the base of animal and vegetable matters, is widely diffused. |
† c. ?
= carbonate.
| 1790 Priestley in Phil. Trans. LXXX. 107, I heated charcoal of copper in 41 ounce measures of dephlogisticated air. |
d. = charcoal grey. Also
attrib. orig. U.S.| 1952 Women's Wear Daily 16 Oct. 3 Charcoal is the choice for a gored skirt sundress with one of the new little triangle cover-tops. 1953 New Yorker 13 June 86/2 White cotton drill striped in pink, blue, or charcoal makes a cardigan jacket. 1955 Wall Street Jrnl. 25 Feb. 17/3 The charcoal trend in suits will extend to dark blues and greens next fall. 1958 M. Dickens Man Overboard i. 14 Ben was seeing himself in a narrow-trousered charcoal suit, entertaining Rose on an expense account. |
† 2. collect. pl. in sense of 1.
Obs.| 1489 Caxton Faytes of A. ii. xxi. 135 Thre thousand sackes of charcolys made of wilowe tree. 1493 Festivall (W. de W. 1515) 25 A man that made charke coles in a wood. 1557 Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden) 76 Item, for charke cooles. 1598 J. Manwood Lawes Forest xxv. i. (1615) 253/2 Charecoales of Brouse wood. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 302 Croidon..is very well known..for char-coles which the townsmen make good chaffers of. 1719 D'Urfey Pills (1872) III. 111 Those glowing Char-coals. |
3. A charcoal pencil or crayon for drawing.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 144/2 Charcoals are Sallow Wood, or Withy Burnt and split into the form of Pencils, and sharpened to a Point. |
4. Short for ‘charcoal drawing’.
| 1884 American VIII. 59 A few good charcoals, but this last branch..seems to be sadly neglected by our own artists. |
5. pl. ‘The name by which the best tin plates are known; these are always made by charcoal fires’ (Ure
Dict. Arts I. 767).
6. attrib. and
Comb., as
charcoal-basket,
charcoal-dust,
charcoal-fire,
charcoal-man,
charcoal-merchant,
charcoal-poultice,
charcoal-powder;
charcoal biscuit, a biscuit containing wood-charcoal as an anti-fermentative, absorbent, or deodorizer;
charcoal-black, a pigment obtained from charcoal;
charcoal brown, a dark brown colour;
freq. attrib.;
charcoal-burner, one whose occupation it is to make charcoal by burning wood, etc.; so
charcoal-burning;
† charcoal-collier = charcoal-burner;
charcoal-filter, a filter in which charcoal is used to absorb impurities;
charcoal-furnace, a furnace in which charcoal is made by dry distillation of wood;
charcoal grey, (
a) a dark grey powder or pigment made from charcoal; (
b) a dark grey colour;
charcoal-iron, iron containing a certain percentage of carbon;
charcoal-oven = charcoal-furnace;
charcoal-point (
Electr.)
= carbon-point; see
carbon n. 2, 3 c.
| a 1658 Cleveland Gen. Poems (1677) 15 The Green sickness of the Mind..A kind of *Charcoal Appetite. |
| 1885 Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List 759 Bragg's *Charcoal Biscuits. 1925 Charcoal biscuit [see digestive A. 2 b]. |
| 1622 Peacham Compl. Gent. xiii. (1634) 132 Shaddow it with *Char-coale blacke. |
| 1959 ‘Ed McBain’ Pusher ii. 16 He was..dressed now in a brown sharkskin suit and *charcoal-brown overcoat. |
| 1841 W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 257 A few *charcoal-burners among the brakes. |
| 1863 Watts Dict. Chem. I. 759 If the supply of air is limited, only the more volatile ingredients [of wood] burn away, and the greater part of the carbon remains behind. This is the principle of the process of *charcoal-burning. |
| 1636 Althorp MS. in Simpkinson Washingtons Introd. 78 To the *charcoal colliers uppon my lordes guift towardes the buying of their sackes 00 03 06. |
| 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. I. 101 Add to it as much very dry *charcoal-dust. |
| 1681 J. Chetham Angler's Vade-m. xxxix. §2 (1689) 254 A clear *Charcoal or Wood-coal Fire. |
| 1801 N. Coxe Tour Monmouth. I. 3 Tintern Abby, *charcoal furnace, forges, and wire-works. |
| 1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 471/1 Water Colours..*Charcoal grey. 1934 H. Hiler Notes Techn. Painting ii. 90 Greys. Charcoal grey, Davy's grey, [etc.]. 1949 Dict. Colours Int. Decoration (Brit. Colour Council) III. 5/2 Charcoal grey,..a descriptive colour name introduced into seasonal ranges by B.C.C. in 1942, to denote a neutral grey. 1963 Times 27 Feb. 6/4 An easy-to-wear blouse style garment in charcoal grey. |
| 1858 Greener Gunnery 166 *Charcoal iron has..been the only stub twist barrels they..have ever been served with. 1861 Lond. Rev. 16 Feb. 167 The charcoal iron of Newland and Backbarrow, near Ulverston..unrivalled in quality. 1870 Daily News 14 Apr., The rope is of charcoal iron, and two inches in circumference. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts III. 895 With an admixture of charcoal pig-iron. |
| 1697 tr. C'tess D'Aunoy's Trav. (1706) 245 A hundred *Charcoal-men..provide the Wood, which is to burn those that are condemned to the Fire. 1830 Scott Ivanhoe Introd., The..romance of Rauf Colziar, in which Charlemagne is introduced as the unknown guest of a charcoal-man. |
| 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. II. 30 His Father..exercised the trade of a *charcoal-merchant. |
| 1878 tr. Ziemssen's Cycl. Med. XVII. 463 In the immediate vicinity of *charcoal-ovens. |
| c 1865 Letheby in Circ. Sc. I. 136/1 If the *charcoal-points are too close together. |
| 1876 Bartholow Mat. Med. (1879) 553 A *charcoal-poultice differs from an ordinary poultice in having powdered charcoal incorporated with the mass. 1881 Syd. Soc. Lex., Cataplasma carbonis..The charcoal poultice. For correcting the fœtor..of ill-conditioned ulcers. |
| 1855 J. F. W. Johnston Chem. Com. Life I. 81 *Charcoal powder darkens..the flowers of the dahlia. |
▪ II. charcoal, v. trans. [f. prec. n.] 1. To mark, write, or blacken, with charcoal.
| 1840 Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1867) 387 Half a lame couplet charcoaled on the wall. 1860 All Y. Round No. 47. 493 Brows..charcoaled with some black pigment. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. IV. 178. |
2. To suffocate with the fumes of charcoal.
| 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. xxxvii, Because she wouldn't shut herself up in an air-tight three-pair-of-stairs and charcoal herself to death. 1866 Lond. Rev. 16 June 665 The novelist..drowned one character, shot another, charcoaled a third, and in some manner got rid of the entire lot. |