carburetor

Etymology

It is formed from English carburet + -or,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} carburet being the verb "to combine or charge with carbon".^[5][7][8] The verb comes from the noun carburet, a compound of carbon with another element (1788), now replaced by carbide;^[2][9][10] the noun is from New Latin carburetum, coined in 1786 from French carbure and the Latin suffix -ētum,^[2] and the French word is from Latin carbō (“coal”).^[11][10] Etymonline and Barnhart describe carburet as carb- with the archaic chemical suffix -uret, which was used to parallel French words in -ure.^[9][5] The variant carburator follows words in -ator.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An apparatus for enriching gas or air with hydrocarbon fuel to make it burn better: 1862, in Scientific American.^[2] Etymonline, Barnhart and the 1989 edition of the OED date the word to 1866,^[9][5][12] Dictionary.com to 1860–65.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The first carburetors enriched illuminating gas, making a gas flame brighter by adding volatile hydrocarbons.^[9][5][2] With the petrol engine the word passed in 1896 to the device that mixes a fine spray of fuel with air before it enters the cylinders,^[2][9][3] the sense that has since become the main one.^[13][14] In American slang it has meant the heart (1924)^[15] and, in drug users' slang, a pipe or attachment that mixes air with the smoke of cannabis or crack cocaine, recorded by Dalzell from 1967 and by Green from 1977.^[16][15]

Timeline

• 1862 – an apparatus for enriching gas or air with hydrocarbons.^[2]
• 1896 – the device that mixes fuel with air in an internal-combustion engine.^[2][9][3]
• 1924 – slang, the heart.^[15]
• 1967 – slang, a pipe for smoking cannabis that mixes the smoke with air.^[16][15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A device in a petrol or internal-combustion engine that atomizes the fuel and mixes it with air in the right proportion: The mechanic cleaned the carburetor on the old motorbike.^{[13][3][14][2]}
2. An apparatus for enriching gas or air with hydrocarbon fuel, originally to brighten a gas flame.^[2][9]
3. (slang) A pipe or attachment for smoking cannabis or crack that draws in air with the smoke.^[16][15]

Related words

• carburetion
• carburet
• carbon
• carbide

Usage notes

Carburettor and carburetter are the chiefly British spellings, carburetor the usual American one.^[3][13][6] The informal clipping is carb.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
12. ^ Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
15. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge