Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton

Phil Bradley points us to the Online Etymology Dictionary, a wonderful and highly detailed resource of the history of Modern English.  Search for a word, and get the complete etymology for the word.  I searched on "carbon" (actually from an IM reference question a few weeks ago) and got the following:

1789, coined 1780s in Fr. by Lavoisier as charbone, from L. carbo (gen. carbonis) "glowing coal, charcoal," from PIE base *ker- "heat, fire, to burn" (cf. L. cremare "to burn;" Skt. krsna "black, burnt," kudayati "singes;" Lith. kuriu "to heat," karštas "hot," krosnis "oven;" O.C.S. kurjo "to smoke," krada "fireplace, hearth;" Rus. ceren "brazier;" O.H.G. harsta "roasting;" Goth. hauri "coal;" O.N. hyrr "fire;" O.E. heorð "hearth"). Carbon 14, long-lived radioactive isotope used in dating organic deposits, is from 1936. Carbon paper (soon to be obsolete) is from 1895, as is carbon copy.

That’s a lot of information, and much more than I was able to find elsewhere online.  You can find a complete list of the site’s sources, which completely reassured me of the site’s reliability.  Add this to your bookmarks now!