Etymologically
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carbonate

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈkɑː(ɹ).bə.neɪt/, /ˈkɑː(ɹ).bə.nət/[1]

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
  • 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