coal
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /kəʊl/
ipa: [kʰɒʊɫ]
note: doll–dole merger
ipa: /kɒl/
ipa: /kɐʉl/
ipa: [kʰɒʊɫ]
ipa: /koʊl/
ipa: [kʰoɫ]
rhymes: -əʊl
homophone: cole
homophone: kohl
Forms: form: coals
form: coaling
form: coaled
form: coaled
form: cole
form: coale
form: colle
form: coole
form: coell
form: coile
Etymology: From Middle English cole, from Old English col, from Proto-West Germanic *kol, from Proto-Germanic *kulą, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵwelH- (“to burn, shine”).
Cognate with West Frisian koal (“coal”), Cimbrian kholl (“coal”), Dutch kool (“coal; carbon”), German Kohle (“coal”), Luxembourgish Kuel (“coal”), Vilamovian köła (“coal”), Yiddish קויל (koyl, “coal”), Danish kul (“coal”), Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish kol (“coal; carbon”), Jamtish kuł (“coal; carbon”). Compare Middle Irish gúal (“coal”), Lithuanian žvi̇̀lti (“to twinkle, glow”), Persian زغال (zoġâl, “live coal”), Sanskrit ज्वल् (jval, “to burn, glow”), Tocharian B śoliye (“hearth”), all from the same root.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
text: 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.
ref: 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 131:
text: The light shook and splintered in the puddles. A red glare came from an outward-bound steamer that was coaling.
ref: 1890, Oscar Wilde, chapter XVI, in The Picture of Dorian Gray:
text: 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.
ref: 1949 November and December, Railway Magazine, page 371 (photo caption):
glosses: To take on a supply of coal (usually of steam ships or locomotives).
examples: text: to coal a steamer
text: 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
text: 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.
ref: 1944 January and February, W. McGowan Gradon, “Forres as a Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 23:
text: The cleaner worked, of course, at nights. He had to coal and light up the engine, as well as clean it, for the next day's work, which commenced with a light run to Barnham to "bring in the goods" from that station at about 6.30 a.m.
ref: 1952 February, J. Pelham Maitland, “Locomotive Working on Sussex Branches Fifty Years Ago”, in Railway Magazine, page 84:
glosses: To supply with coal.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2014, Ken Mudge, Steve Gabriel, Farming the Woods:
text: As a result, particles of wood and twigs insufficiently coaled are frequently found at the bottom of such pits.
ref: 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 18:
glosses: To be converted to charcoal.
examples: text: Char-coal of roots, coaled into great pieces.
ref: 1622, Francis Bacon, Natural History:
glosses: To burn to charcoal; to char.
examples: text: […] marvailing, he coaled out these rithms upon the wall near to the picture
ref: 1551, William Camden, Remains concerning Britain:
glosses: To mark or delineate with charcoal.