## Etymology
A back-formation from charcoal, of obscure origin; the first element may relate to Old English cerran ('to turn') or to chare/char ('a turn of work'). The verb means to reduce to charcoal by burning.

## AI Etymology
Char is a back-formation from charcoal, of obscure origin; the first element may relate to Old English cerran ('to turn') or to chare/char ('a turn of work'). The verb means to reduce to charcoal by burning. The history must be left partly open, preserving the uncertainty rather than forcing a single unsupported ancestry. Used as a verb and noun, char now means "scorch or burn so as to blacken the surface", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in derived forms such as charred and charring and related forms such as charcoal. That uncertainty is part of the entry: the safest account is the attested form and the limited comparisons preserved with it.

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