carbón

Forms

carbón m (plural carbones)^[1] In the Middle Ages the spelling wavered between carvón, used in the Poema de Fernán González and by Nebrija, and carbón, used by Alonso de Palencia.^[2] Judaeo-Spanish has karvon.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish carvón, inherited from Latin carbō (“a piece of charcoal”), continuing the Latin oblique stem in -ōn-.^[2][4][5][1] The same Latin word is Portuguese carvão, Galician carbón, Asturian carbón, Catalan carbó, Occitan carbon, French charbon, Italian carbone and Romanian cărbune.^[6][7][1] carbono, the name of the chemical element, is a doublet of it.^[1][4]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear.^[8] De Vaan notes that its meaning is narrow and its suffix is not found in the words usually compared outside Italic, such as Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌹 (hauri, “charcoal”) and Old Norse hyrr (“fire”), from Proto-Germanic *hurja-, so an Indo-European origin is uncertain.^[8] He suggests that it may go back to an older form with a vowel later lost by syncope.^[8] Wiktionary connects it, with the same reserve, to Proto-Indo-European *ker- (“to burn”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in the CDH is the Fuero de Alcalá (c. 1235), in a list of market dues: Por toda madera e carvón que a mercado “for all the wood and charcoal [brought] to market”.^[9] Corominas dates the word to Berceo, in the first half of the 13th century, whose Milagros tell of a church fire in which everything tornó todo carbones “was all turned to cinders”.^{[4][2][9][10]}

Semantic evolution

In medieval texts the word meant charcoal, the black remains of burnt wood, and also an ember after it has gone out;^[11][10] Alfonso X uses both senses.^[11][10] In 1786 Terreros described it as “half-burnt wood” and named mineral coal carbón de piedra, carbón de tierra or carbón fósil, used in forges.^[12] The Academy's 1884 edition still defined it as the residue of burnt wood, with carbón de piedra or mineral as a phrase.^[13] Its 1899 edition added the black fungus that attacks the grains of cereals.^[14] Today the DLE puts mineral coal first.^[5]

The fungal sense lives on in the Americas: the DAMER records it for a disease of maize in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Argentina and for diseases of sugar cane.^[15] In Colombia carbón is anthrax.^[5][15] In Dominican speech it means “money”.^[16][17] In Mexico the popular phrase ser carbón was used of treachery and marital infidelity.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1235 – the Fuero de Alcalá has carvón.^[9]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre uses the plural carvones, in a copy of the early 15th century.^[9]
• 1246–1252 – Berceo's Milagros, Corominas's first record, known from an 18th-century copy.^[9][2]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General Estoria uses it for a dead ember.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin carbo for carvón.^[19]
• 1535 – the first record from the Americas, in Lima.^[20]
• 1786 – Terreros records carbón de piedra for mineral coal.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, from Latin carbo.^[13]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the sense “smut of cereals”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. coal: a hard, dark fossil fuel formed by the slow decay of woody matter.^[5][1]
2. charcoal: a light, black, highly combustible solid left by burning wood or other organic matter without enough air: Asamos la carne sobre carbón de encina.^[5][21][1]
3. An ember after it has gone out.^[5]
4. A stick of charcoal for drawing, a carboncillo.^[5][21]
5. (Colombia) anthrax (carbunco).^[5]
6. (Mexico, Central America, Argentina) A fungal disease of maize, smut; a disease of sugar cane.^[15]
7. (Dominican Republic, colloquial) Money.^[16]

Word family

• carboncillo
• carbonear
• carbonero
• carbonilla
• carbonizar
• carbonada
• carbonera
• carbonífero

Related words

• carbono
• carbunco
• Latin carbō
• Portuguese carvão

Usage notes

Set phrases include carbón vegetal “charcoal”, carbón de piedra or carbón mineral “coal” and carbón animal “bone black”, made by burning bones.^[5][21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 856
3. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. carbón
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. carbón
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1674
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. carbo
8. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
10. ^ a b c Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 623
11. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. carbón
12. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 354
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 210
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 195
15. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. carbón
16. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. carbón
17. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 216
18. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 214
19. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. carbón
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. carbón
21. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. carbón