coal
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English cole, from Old English col, from Proto-West Germanic *kol, from Proto-Germanic *kulą (compare West Frisian koal, Dutch kool, German Kohle, Danish kul), from *ǵwelH- (“to burn, shine”).
Compare Old Irish gúal (“coal”), Lithuanian žvìlti (“to twinkle, glow”), Persian زغال (zoğâl, “live coal”), Sanskrit ज्वल् (jval, “to burn, glow”), Tocharian B śoliye (“hearth”), all from the same root.
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /kəʊl/, [kʰɒʊɫ]
- (New Zealand, General Australian) IPA(key): /kɐʉl/, [kʰɒʊɫ]
- (General American) IPA(key): /koʊl/, [kʰoɫ]
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -əʊl
- Homophones: cole, kohl
Noun edit
coal (countable and uncountable, plural coals)
- (uncountable) A black or brownish black rock formed from prehistoric plant remains, composed largely of carbon and burned as a fuel.
- The coal in this region was prized by ironmasters in centuries past, who mined it in the spots where the drainage methods of the day permitted.
- 1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, pages 3, 5:
- Coal-eaters they may have been, but a more willing or harder working Atlantic engine was never designed.
- (countable) A type of coal, such as bituminous, anthracite, or lignite, and grades and varieties thereof, as a fuel commodity ready to buy and burn.
- See also: stockpile
- Put some coal on the fire.
- Order some coal from the coalyard.
- (countable) A piece of coal used for burning (this use is less common in American English)
- Put some coals on the fire.
- (countable) A glowing or charred piece of coal, wood, or other solid fuel.
- charcoal.
- (Internet slang, 4chan slang) Content of low quality.
- I'm so sick of seeing this left-wing coal online.
- (military slang, World War I – World War II) Bombs emitting black smoke on impact.[1]
Adjective edit
coal (comparative coalier, superlative coaliest)
- (Internet slang, soyjak.party slang, 4chan slang) Failing to be humorous or of extremely poor quality.
- These are some really coal threads.
Verb edit
coal (third-person singular simple present coals, present participle coaling, simple past and past participle coaled)
- (Internet slang, 4chan slang) To post low-quality content online.
- Those troons are really coaling out.
Hyponyms edit
Derived terms edit
- anticoal
- at the coal face
- bituminous coal, soft coal
- black as coal
- black coal
- blind coal
- block coal
- boghead coal
- Bovey coal
- brown coal
- buckwheat coal
- burn coal
- burn the coal
- caking coal
- canal coal
- candle coal
- cannel coal
- channel coal
- cherry coal
- clean coal
- coalbag
- coal ball
- coal-bearing
- coal bed
- coalbin
- coal black
- coalblack
- coalbox
- coalboy
- coal brass
- coal burner
- coal car
- Coal City
- Coal County
- coal cracker
- Coal Creek
- coalcutter
- coal drop
- coaldust
- coaler
- coalery
- coalette
- coalface
- coalfield
- coal-fired, coalfired
- coalfish
- coal fungus (Daldinia concentrica)
- coal gap
- coal gas
- Coalgate
- coalheaver
- coalheaving
- coalhod
- coal hole
- coalhouse
- coalie
- coalification
- coalify
- Coalisland
- Coalite
- coalless
- coallike
- coalman
- coalmaster
- coal merchant
- coal-meter
- coalmine, coal mine
- coalminer
- coalmining
- coalmonger
- coalmouse
- coal oil
- coalowner
- coalpit
- coal plant
- coalplex
- coalpot
- coal pusher
- coal rank
- coal-rolled
- coal roller
- coal-rolling
- coalsack
- coal scuttle
- coal-scuttle bonnet
- coal scuttle helmet
- coal seam
- coalshed
- coal-smoke
- coals to Newcastle
- coal-tar
- coal tar
- coaltit
- coal tit
- coal tit (Periparus ater)
- coal train
- Coalville
- coalwashing
- coal-whipper
- coalworker
- coal worker's pneumoconiosis
- coalworks
- coaly
- coalyard
- coking coal
- Colfax
- day coal
- dice coal
- dirty coal
- gas coal
- gathering coal
- glance coal
- hardcoal
- hard coal (see: anthracite)
- kennel coal
- kindle-coal
- metallurgical coal
- mineral coal
- mother of coal
- noncoal
- parrot coal
- pitch coal
- pitcoal
- pit coal
- prairie coal
- quench-coal
- quenchcoal
- recoal
- roll coal
- sea-coal
- small coal
- smithy coal
- splent coal
- splint coal
- steam coal
- stone coal
- thermal coal
- white coal
Related terms edit
Descendants edit
- → Hausa: kwal
Translations edit
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See also edit
Verb edit
coal (third-person singular simple present coals, present participle coaling, simple past and past participle coaled)
- (intransitive) To take on a supply of coal (usually of steam ships or locomotives).
- 1863, Colonial Secretary to Commander Baldwin, USN
- shortly after that she coaled again at Simon's Bay; and that after remaining in the neighbourhood of our ports for a time, she proceeded to Mauritius, where she coaled again, and then returned to this colony.
- 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 131:
- Our next stopping-place was Newcastle, and here we coaled in earnest, for the steamer was flying light, and was loaded up in every available place.
- 1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray:
- The light shook and splintered in the puddles. A red glare came from an outward-bound steamer that was coaling.
- 1949 November and December, Railway Magazine, page 371 (photo caption):
- N.W.R. four-cylinder 4-6-2 class "XS1," No. 761, coaling at Delhi junction. This class is the most powerful passenger engine in India.
- 1863, Colonial Secretary to Commander Baldwin, USN
- (transitive) To supply with coal.
- to coal a steamer
- January 1917, National Geographic Magazine, Volume 31 Number 1, One Hundred British Seaports
- Cruisers may be coaled at sea and provided with ammunition openly. The submarine may not
- 1944 January and February, W. McGowan Gradon, “Forres as a Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 23:
- After working the 1.30 p.m. through train from Forres to Aberdeen as far as Elgin, she returns tender first with a local passenger train and is then coaled and watered at Forres shed, and eventually works back to Perth on the 10.20 p.m. through freight.
- (intransitive) To be converted to charcoal.
- 2014, Ken Mudge, Steve Gabriel, Farming the Woods:
- After the initial burn the goal of any good fire should be coaling; that is, creating a bed of solid coals that will sustain the fire.
- 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 18:
- As a result, particles of wood and twigs insufficiently coaled are frequently found at the bottom of such pits.
- (transitive) To burn to charcoal; to char.
- 1622, Francis Bacon, Natural History:
- Char-coal of roots, coaled into great pieces.
- (transitive) To mark or delineate with charcoal.
- 1551, William Camden, Remains concerning Britain:
- […] marvailing, he coaled out these rithms upon the wall near to the picture
References edit
“coal”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- ^ Lighter, Jonathan (1972), “The Slang of the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe, 1917-1919: An Historical Glossary”, in American Speech[1], volume 47, issue 1/2, page 34