| 释义 |
▪ I. carbon, n.|ˈkɑːbən|
[ad. F. carbone (same sense), made by Lavoisier from L. carbo, carbōn-em coal, charcoal.]
1. a. Chem. One of the non-metallic elements, very abundant in nature, occurring uncombined in three allotropic forms—two crystalline (diamond and graphite) and one amorphous (charcoal), and in combination in carbonic acid gas, the various carbonates, and nearly all organic compounds (thence often called ‘the carbon compounds’). Carbon (symbol C) is a tetrad; atomic weight 12.
1789Priestley in Phil. Trans. LXXIX. 279, Suppose that even the whole of this plumbago afforded only one of the elements of the fixed air, viz. that which the French chemists call carbone. 1794G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. I. xii. 496 Their carbonne is supposed to be the remaining part of charcoal after it has been divested of earth and fixed salts. 1810Henry Elem. Chem. (1826) I. 335 The diamond..was first shown by Guyton to contain carbon. 1813Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. ii. (1814) 46 Carbon is considered as the pure matter of charcoal. 1856Dove Logic Chr. Faith vi. iv. 352 Is man's body mere carbon? 1862R. H. Patterson Ess. Hist. & Art 8 Carbon..in its amorphous state, is charcoal; when crystallised in prisms, it becomes black and opaque graphite; and when crystallised in octohedrons, it is etherealised into the limpid and transparent diamond.
b. A form of diamond, the black diamond or carbonado.
1869Eng. Mechanic 20 Aug. 475/1 Diamond or carbon (the latter name is preferred) stands the severest tests for mechanical purposes without apparent wear. 1903Westm. Gaz. 6 June 9/1 ‘Black diamonds’..technically known as ‘carbons’.
c. Short for carbon-paper (b).
1895Collyns Typists' Man. 55 Errors must not be erased while the carbons are in the machine. 1913E. W. Sargent Technique of Photoplay (ed. 2) 25 For carbon copies get the carbon second sheets. 1920R. Macaulay Potterism i. iv. 46 Jane extracted carbons from a drawer and fitted them to her paper.
d. Short for carbon-copy.
1937in Partridge Dict. Slang 127/1. 1940 H. Innes Trojan Horse iii. 62, I signed the carbon and placed it in a foolscap envelope. 1964R. Petrie Murder by Precedent iii. 46 There has to be something in the file first. The carbon of the finished letter.
e. carbon 14: a long-lived radioactive isotope of carbon, of mass-number 14, the regular decay-rate of which makes possible the dating of organic materials from ancient deposits; also used as a tracer element in biochemistry. Symbol: C14 or 14C. Cf. radio-carbon.
1936Physical Rev. XLIX. 778/1 McMillan has obtained evidence of a radio-active C14. 1941Ibid. LIX. 349 There are 5 known isotopes of carbon, stable C12..C13..C10..C11 and C14 (half-life 103–105 years). Ibid. 351/2 Production of C14 is achieved as a by-product of cyclotron operation. 1946Lancet 12 Oct. 535/2 A so-called unit of carbon 14 (C14). 1950Amer. Speech XXV. 25 Carbon 14..is being extensively used as a tracer. 1951Proc. Prehist. Soc. XVII. 7 There can be age-determination..by the Carbon 14 method. 1958Listener 6 Nov. 720/1 Carbon 14 dating has become vital to the study of archaeology. 1958Times 12 Dec. 17/6 Carbon 14..breaks down only slowly—half of it in about 5,600 years. 1969E. H. Pinto Treen 5 The scientific system of radio carbon dating, or carbon-14 dating, as it is also called, has come into being.
2. Electr. A pencil of fine charcoal (usually made of condensed lamp-black), used in one form of the electric light. Two of these are placed with their points close to each other, and a current of galvanic electricity transmitted through them renders the carbon points intensely luminous.
Also sometimes used for the delicate filament of charcoal in the incandescent form of the electric light.
c1860Faraday Forces Nat., Electric L. 184 The light is essentially given by the carbons. 1879G. B. Prescott Sp. Telephone 403 The light..is soon extinguished by the burning or wasting away of the carbons.
3. attrib.
a. In general sense, Of, like, or pertaining to charcoal or coal, or some form of carbon; carbon-black = lamp-black; also attrib.; carbon-copy, a copy made by using carbon-paper; also fig. and attrib.; carbon cycle, (a) Biol., the cycle in which carbon dioxide is absorbed from the atmosphere by plants and replaced mainly by the respiration of plants and animals and the decay of organic matter; (b) a cycle of thermonuclear reactions in stellar regions, in which carbon acts as a catalyst in the conversion of hydrogen into helium, the consequent energy released being held to be the source of the energy radiated by the sun and stars; carbon fibre, a fibre of carbon; spec. a very thin, polycrystalline filament of carbon, freq. very strong, obtained by the pyrolysis of organic textile fibres and consisting of crystallites that are preferentially aligned parallel to the axis of the filament; used esp. to increase the strength-to-weight ratio of plastic or other material in which filaments are incorporated as in a matrix; also, such filaments collectively; carbon-paper, (a) Photogr., paper used in carbon printing (disused); (b) thin paper coated on one side with a preparation of carbon-black or some other pigmented material, used between two papers to make a duplicate copy of what is written, typed, etc., on the upper sheet (earlier called carbonic paper); carbon printing, process, a photographic process introduced by Poitévin in 1855, producing permanent prints in black and white, the shades of which are produced by the carbon of lamp-black; carbon steel, a steel the properties of which are determined mainly by the percentage of carbon present.
1889Cent. Dict. s.v., Carbon-black..is almost pure carbon in a finely divided form. 1930Engineering 9 May 605/3 The carbon-black industry in the United States. 1934Discovery May 138/2 Indian ink contains carbon black.
1808J. Barlow Columb. v. 669 When at his word the carbon clouds shall rise.
1895Carbon copy [see carbon-paper]. 1944Auden For Time Being (1945) 58 Everything, the massacres, the whippings, the lies, the twaddle, and all their carbon copies are still present. 1959Observer 15 Mar. 11/5 A group of indolent, shiftless, carbon-copy ‘West Side’ youths. 1961Daily Tel. 3 Apr. 7/4 Victim of the week-old ‘carbon copy’ murder.
1912E. J. Russell Soil Conditions iv, The carbon and nitrogen cycles in the soil. 1940H. A. Bethe in Astrophysical Jrnl. XCII. 118 The nuclear reactions involved in the carbon cycle. 1946Ann. Reg. 1945 356 It is generally accepted that the Bethe carbon cycle..provides the main source of stellar energy.
1960Chem. Abstr. LIV. 1966 (heading) The morphology of carbon fibers. 1966Engineer 27 May 816/1 Work on the application of these new carbon fibres is directed toward the manufacture of carbon-fibre composites having resinous matrices. 1969Guardian 10 June 4/1 The Lotus car company is examining ways in which carbon fibre can be used in car production.
1878Jrnl. Chem. Soc. XXXIV. 919 (heading) Carbon-paper rendered sensitive without a chrome-bath. 1895Collyns Typists' Man. 55 In correcting the carbon copies, a narrow strip of carbon paper should be placed upon the ribbon to prevent the corrections being conspicuous.
1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. III. 326 The perfecting of a carbon process has been the work of considerable time.
a1888Mod. Newspaper, The majority of the works shown are permanent carbon photographs.
1903A. H. Hiorns Steel & Iron xix. 336 The mild blister steel is used for springs, and the higher carbon steel after fagoting and welding is termed ‘shear’ steel. 1925Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. CXI. 305 Plain carbon steels high in carbon have a partially austenitic structure when sufficiently intensely quenched.
b. Chem., as in carbon compounds, etc., and specific names, as carbon dioxide, CO2, systematic name of carbonic acid gas; carbon-dioxide snow, carbon dioxide solidified by cooling (cf. carbonic a. 1 a); carbon disulphide, see disulphide; carbon monoxide, CO, a highly poisonous gas, also known as carbonic oxide gas; etc.; carbon tetrachloride, see tetra- 2 a.
1869Roscoe Elem. Chem. xxvii. (1874) 289 Organic Chemistry is defined as the chemistry of the carbon compounds. 1873Fownes' Chem. 161 Carbon Dioxide, or Carbonic Oxide, is always produced when charcoal burns in air or oxygen gas. Ibid. 163 Carbon Monoxide is a combustible gas. 1910Lancet 14 May 1350/1 The beneficial effects of treatment by carbon dioxide snow in Xeroderma pigmentosum. 1934Discovery Aug. 223/2 In its solid state it [sc. carbon dioxide] is used by hospitals for cauterisation, in the form of ‘carbon dioxide snow’.
c. Electr., as in carbon light, carbon points, carbon poles, etc. carbon-arc, an arc between electrodes that consist wholly or mainly of carbon; also attrib.; carbon microphone, a microphone depending for its action on the varying electrical resistance of carbon granules when subjected to sound waves of varying pressure (see quot. 1962); carbon transmitter, = carbon microphone.
1908Jrnl. & Proc. R. Soc. N.S.W. XLII. 201 An investigation of the phenomena associated with the relighting of the carbon arc. 1922Glazebrook Dict. Appl. Physics II. 145/2 The cored carbons which are used in ordinary open type or enclosed type lamps, for the so-called pure carbon arc, have the core canal filled with a mixture of carbon and potassium silicate. 1927Lancet 1 Jan. 15 The therapeutical use of the carbon-arc light.
1871tr. Schellen's Spectr. Anal. 74 Instead of the carbon-cylinder thick rods or wires of zink..may be employed.
Ibid. 33 To reach the carbon holders.
1879Telegraphic Jrnl. VII. 1/1 The carbon microphone..has already proved a practical instrument for sending articulate sounds. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio 244 Carbon microphone, microphone in which the audio signal is produced by varying the resistance of a button of granular carbon to which a polarizing voltage is applied (a diaphragm presses on the carbon button).
1875Hamerton Intell. Life vii. iii. 238 The light that plays between the wedded intelligences as the electric light burns between two carbon points.
1871tr. Schellen's Spectr. Anal. 30 As soon as the current passes through the carbon poles the electric arc is formed.
1879G. B. Prescott Sp. Telephone 39 C is a carbon transmitter included with battery B in the primary circuit. 1889Telephone I. 248/1 A carbon transmitter is used in connection with this receiver.
Add:[3.] [a.] carbon tax, a tax levied on fossil fuels with the aim of discouraging the production of harmful carbon dioxide by their being burnt.
1986Los Angeles Times 1 Aug. ii. 5/5 In the long run we should consider more aggressive actions, such as carbon taxes, to discourage the excessive use of coal and shale. 1990J. Goldemberg in J. Leggett Global Warming viii. 176 The most common proposal is the creation of a general carbon tax designed to constitute a fund to curb further emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 1990New Age Dec. 14/1, 70 percent of US citizens now support a carbon tax, which would penalize all energy sources that produce the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. 1993New Scientist 1 May 11/1 Britain is the only member of the European Community blocking a carbon tax.
▸ carbon footprint n. the environmental impact of carbon emissions; the magnitude of this for a particular individual, organization, or community; cf. footprint n. Additions.
1999BBC Vegetarian Good Food Apr. 86/2 To cancel out the damage we do, Morrell believes we should plant trees, and that in doing so an individual or organisation can erase their *carbon ‘footprint’. 2006Hamilton (Ont.) Spectator (Nexis) 10 June d16 Somebody who wants to reduce his ‘carbon footprint’ can bicycle to work.
▸ carbon sink n. a sink (sink n.1 8) for carbon; spec. a part of the biosphere (such as a forest or ocean) that causes carbon dioxide to be removed from the atmosphere.
1963Adv. Energy Conversion 3 172 The *carbon sink was tantalum as Ta2C formation was observed. 1975BioScience 25 58 Although forest ecosystems represent a potential carbon sink, their effectiveness is being curtailed by man's reduction of the forest biomass. 1976Compar. Biochem. & Physiol. (B.) 55 447/1 Alanine is thought to function as a carbon sink in amino acid metabolism. 2000U.S. News & World Rep. 3–10 Jan. 66/1 As the planet's largest carbon sink, the deep sea is a prime spot for large-scale sequestration [of carbon]. 2006New Scientist 8 Apr. 9/2 Under the Kyoto protocol, countries are already allowed to offset their emissions with carbon absorbed by purpose-built ‘carbon sink’ forests.
▪ II. carbon, v.
[f. the n.]
intr. or pass. Of the cylinders in the engine of a motor car: to become coated with carbon deposit. Const. up.
1922Daily Mail 28 Nov. 6 [A motor engine] longer to carbon up and easier to decarbonise than its rivals. 1925Morris Owner's Man. 70 Thanks to good carburation, the Morris engine carbons up very slowly. 1928Daily Express 3 Aug. 9 Even if the engine is carboned up, you get wonderful pulling. |