Plural of charcoal; pieces of burned wood or carbon used for drawing, filtering, fuel, or other purposes.
From Old English ceole (charcoal), from Proto-Germanic roots meaning the black residue left after burning wood; related to 'char' and 'coal'.
Charcoal seems modern because artists use it, but it's one of humanity's oldest technologies—every ancient fire accidentally created the medium, millennia before anyone formalized the art.
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