Etymology

carbocation

C3A1R1B3O1C3A1T1I1O1N1

Today it means: Any cation containing an excess positive charge on one or more carbon atoms Full definition →

English cation ← French carbone ← Latin carbōnem
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*kerh₃-der.?
  2. Latincarbōnem
  3. Frenchcarbone
  4. Englishcarbon
  5. Englishcarbo-
  6. Englishcation
  7. English todaycarbocation

From carbo- + cation.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.