Etymology

carbolic acid

Today it means: phenol (C₆H₅OH) Full definition →

Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

Partial calque of German Carbolsäure (modern German Karbolsäure), which was coined in 1834 by its discoverer Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.