British spelling: to convert something into carbon or charcoal, usually by heating it without oxygen, or to treat with carbon compounds.
From carbon plus -ise (British suffix for creating a verb). Emerged in 19th-century chemistry alongside industrial coal processing and carbon chemistry developments.
Carbonising wood creates charcoal, which is how humans accidentally discovered one of the most useful materials in history—and charcoal's ability to absorb poisons made it essential for treating poisoning cases long before modern medicine existed.
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