carbon: [18] The notion underlying carbon is probably that of ‘burning’; it has been tentatively traced back to a base *kar- ‘fire’. The word’s immediate source was French carbone, coined in the 1780s on the basis of Latin carbō ‘coal, charcoal’ (supplementing an earlier borrowing charbon ‘coal, charcoal’). It is not certain whether char and charcoal are related to it. [carbon etymology, carbon origin, 英语词源]