Etymology

charcoal

C3H4A1R1C3O1A1L1

Today it means: impure carbon obtained by destructive distillation of wood or other organic matter, that is, heating it in the absence of oxygen. Full definition →

Middle English charcole ← Old English cierran
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The story

  1. Old English · inherited fromcierran“to change, turn”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromcharcole
  3. English todaycharcoal

From Middle English charcole, from charren (“to change, turn”) + cole (“coal”), from Old English cierran (“to change, turn”) + col (“coal”). By surface analysis, char (Etymology 3 [verb]) + coal.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.