Carbonizing

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The transformation of substances into a carbon-rich state through the application of heat without oxygen is an important chemical process
2. It is a chemical procedure where organic materials are converted into carbon by heating in an environment lacking air
3. The process involving the conversion of materials into carbon through heating in the absence of oxygen is significant in various industrial applications

Etymology: "Carbonizing" is the present participle of "carbonize," which is formed from "carbon" plus the verb-forming suffix "-ize." "Carbon" comes from Latin "carbo," meaning charcoal or ember, and entered English in the late 1700s as a name for the element, a meaning that developed after chemists recognized charcoal as a form of the substance. "Carbonize" appeared in the 1800s, using the same "-ize" ending found in many scientific verbs of that era. The process is older than the word. People made charcoal by smothering burning wood under soil or in covered kilns, which is exactly the oxygen-starved heating the verb describes, long before anyone called it carbonizing. The modern term was attached to that ancient practice once chemistry had a vocabulary for it, so the word names an old craft in new scientific language.