the.com/char
the line between flavor and failure, decided by a few extra seconds
means To char is to scorch or burn the surface of something, usually with heat from a fire or grill, leaving it blackened.
from A back-formation from 'charcoal,' clipped down sometime around the 17th century. 'Charcoal' itself is old and a little murky — the 'char' part may relate to an Old English word for 'turn' (as in turning wood into coal), or possibly to an obscure sense of 'char' meaning a turn of work. Either way, the verb came after the lump of black: we named the burning for the burnt thing it makes.
- chemistry
- Maillard reaction browns food before true charring begins
- river fish
- Char is also a cold-water cousin of salmon
- old slang
- British workers once called tea a cup of char
- programming
- In C, char stores a single byte character
- forest paradox
- Charred bark insulates some trees, helping them survive fire