carbonate

Etymology

The noun is borrowed from French carbonate,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} first used in Guyton de Morveau and others' “Méthode de nomenclature chimique” (1787),^[2] which Etymonline attributes to Lavoisier.^[4] The French word is formed from carbone (“carbon”) with the suffix -ate;^[2][5][6] Barnhart and Etymonline derive it from New Latin carbonatum (“a carbonated substance”), which the OED records from 1794.^[3][4][2] Carbone is from Latin carbō (“a piece of charcoal, glowing coal”),^[2][4] from Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“heat, fire”).^[4] The verb is formed from English carbon + -ate according to the OED,^[2] or from the noun, perhaps under the influence of carbonater (“to turn into a carbonate”), according to Barnhart and Etymonline.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A salt of carbonic acid: 1788, in an English translation of the French “Méthode de nomenclature chimique”.^[2] Barnhart, Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date it to 1794.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant to convert something into a carbonate (1794, in a letter of Erasmus Darwin),^[2] and it has meant to charge a liquid with carbon dioxide since 1805;^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1850s.^[4] Another sense, to burn to carbon or char, was used from 1799 to 1831.^[2][7] In mining, carbonate came to mean an ore rich in lead or iron carbonate (1849),^[2][5] and in Britain, from 1982, a fizzy drink.^[2] The noun carbonation is recorded from 1881.^[3]

Timeline

• 1788 – chemistry, a salt of carbonic acid.^[2] Etymonline and Barnhart date it to 1794.^[4][3]
• 1794 – verb, to convert into a carbonate.^[2]
• 1799 – verb, to burn to carbon (obsolete by 1831).^[2]
• 1805 – verb, to charge a liquid with carbon dioxide.^[2][3]
• 1849 – mining, an ore rich in carbonate.^[2]
• 1860 – a black diamond, carbonado.^[2]
• 1982 – chiefly British, a fizzy drink.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chemistry) A salt or ester of carbonic acid, containing the ion CO₃²⁻.^[6][5][2]
2. (mining) An ore containing a large proportion of lead or iron carbonate.^[5][2]
3. (chiefly British) A carbonated drink.^[2]

Verb

1. To charge a liquid, especially a drink, with carbon dioxide so that it fizzes.^[6][5][2]
2. To convert into a carbonate.^[6][5][2]
3. (obsolete, 1799–1831) To burn to carbon; to carbonize.^[5][2][7]

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or made of carbonates, as rocks composed of calcite or dolomite.^[5]

Word family

• carbonation
• carbonator
• decarbonate
• noncarbonate
• polycarbonate
• sesquicarbonate
• carbonatite
• carbonatation

Related words

• carbon
• carbonic
• bicarbonate
• carbonize

Usage notes

An unrelated verb carbonate, to grill meat (an alteration of carbonado), was used from 1629 to 1729.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press