Carbonization

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The transformation of organic matter into carbon compounds occurs through high temperatures in the absence of oxygen
2. A procedure that changes organic substances into carbon-rich materials using heat and lacking air
3. The process involved in converting organic materials into carbon-rich substances is achieved through pyrolysis, which occurs without the presence of oxygen

Etymology: Carbonization is a plain technical coinage, built from "carbon" and the suffix "-ization," which turns a verb into a noun for a process. The base, "carbon," comes from French "carbone," which in turn goes back to Latin "carbō," meaning charcoal or ember. The "-ize" element traces through Late Latin "-izāre" and Greek "-ízein," and "-ation" comes from Latin "-ātiō," so the whole word is a stack of borrowed parts rather than a native English growth. The surprise lies in the base word: "carbon" was named for the substance that was already familiar as charcoal, long before anyone knew it was an element. Charcoal, the product of heating wood with little air, is itself the everyday example of the process the word describes, so the term names an ancient craft that people practised for centuries before chemists had a name for it.

Synonyms: carbonization process, charcoal production, pyrolysis, calcination, carbonize