Synonyms for coal
EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR COAL
Built on fear and run by fear, fear is as essential to their existence as coal to our industries.
In using this device, only a coal or a wood stove is practical.
Should a coal fall into the dripping-pan take it out immediately.
It'd be cheaper than coal, I thought; that's why I invented it.
There was also a large supply of gunpowder, ball, and shot, and coal and wood in abundance.
The capital invested by this concern in the coal trade is about $250,000.
Fifteen hundred acres of coal land are owned in connection with these works.
To produce this it is estimated that 225,000 tons of coal and coke were consumed.
An' then there's the coal to be got in an' the ashes to be took out.
They have coal, but even the wood to kindle the coal is imported.
WORD ORIGIN
Old English col "charcoal, live coal," from Proto-Germanic *kula(n) (cf. Old Frisian kole, Middle Dutch cole, Dutch kool, Old High German chol, German Kohle, Old Norse kol), from PIE root *g(e)u-lo- "live coal" (cf. Irish gual "coal").
Meaning "mineral consisting of fossilized carbon" is from mid-13c. First mentioned (370 B.C.E.) by Theophrastus in his treatise "On Stones" under the name lithos anthrakos (see anthrax). Traditionally good luck, coal was given as a New Year's gift in England, said to guarantee a warm hearth for the coming year. The phrase drag (or rake) over the coals was a reference to the treatment meted out to heretics by Christians. To carry coals "do dirty work," also "submit to insult" is from 1520s. To carry coals to Newcastle (c.1600) Anglicizes Greek glauk eis Athenas "owls to Athens."