carb (n.)

also carburator, carburettor, device to enhance a gas flame by adding volatile hydrocarbons, 1866, from carburet "compound of carbon and another substance" (1795, now displaced by carbide), also used as a verb, "to combine with carbon" (1802); from carb-, combining form of carbon, + -uret, an archaic suffix from Modern Latin -uretum, used in English to parallel French words in -ure. Motor vehicle sense "apparatus for injecting fuel in fine particles into air to prepare it for the cylinder" is from 1896.

general name for a group of organic compounds consisting of carbon atoms in multiples of 6 and hydrogen and oxygen in the proportion of water, 1851, from carbo-, combining form of carbon, + hydrate (n.), denoting compound produced when certain substances combine with water, from Greek hydor "water" (from suffixed form of PIE root *wed- (1) "water; wet").

The name carbohydrate was given to these compounds because, in composition, they are apparently hydrates of carbon. In structure, however, they are far more complex. [Flood]

see carb.