A device in a gasoline engine that mixes air and fuel vapor in the right proportions before combustion.
From French 'carburateur,' derived from 'carburer' (to carburate), plus '-or' agent suffix, named for its function of carburating the air-fuel mixture.
The carburetor was so important to engine technology that 'carburet' became a common word—but it became obsolete almost overnight when fuel injection proved more efficient, showing how technological change can kill entire vocabularies.
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