Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

carbon oil

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.44 in modern English

Syllables: car-bon oil
IPA

13

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

2

Syllables

8

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Alternative letter-case form of Carbon Oil.

Uncountable

noun

Distilled petroleum used as lamp oil; early kerosene.

Obsolete; Uncountable

Example Sentences

"... lands near Tarentum, east of Pittsburgh, along the Allegheny River ... The region was also notorious for the pernicious infiltration of petroleum, called at the time Carbon Oil, which was a popular rather than scientific term."

Etymology

From carbon + oil. Coined in the early 1850s in Pennsylvania by Samuel Martin Kier, an American industrialist who refined crude petroleum into an illuminant. Kier chose a marketable name for his new lamp fuel to emphasize both its petroleum origin and its difference from whale oil. According to linguist Hans Kurath, this term may be heard from the western edge of the Alleghenies to beyond the Ohio line.

Usage

Phrases

coal oil

Frequently Paired Words

coal oil

Questions

What does carbon oil mean?: Alternative letter-case form of Carbon Oil.
Where does carbon oil come from?: From carbon + oil. Coined in the early 1850s in Pennsylvania by Samuel Martin Kier, an American industrialist who refined crude petroleum into an illuminant. Kier chose a marketable name for his new lamp fuel to emphasize both its petroleum origin and its difference from whale oil. According to linguist Hans Kurath, this term may be heard from the western edge of the Alleghenies to beyond the Ohio line.

How to pronounce carbon oil

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