sb. pl. Rarely in sing. carbonaro. [It.; pl. of carbonaro collier, charcoal-burner, an appellation assumed by the society.] The members of a secret political association formed in the kingdom of Naples during the French occupation under Murat, with the design of introducing a republican government.
1823. Byron, Age Bronze, xii. Have Carbonaro cooks not carbonadoed Each course enough?
1840. Marryat, Olla Podr. (Rtldg.), 245. The Carbonari had become formidable in Italy.
1870. Disraeli, Lothair, viii. 36. How they can be got together, I marvel: priests and philosophers, legitimists and carbonari!
1880. W. Cory, Mod. Eng. Hist., I. 148, note. In 1799 … when driven to the forest of the Abruzzi they [republicans] are believed to have disguised themselves as charcoal-burners. In the course of twenty years the name Carbonari was borne by a society, or confederate societies, ranging all over Italy.
Hence Carbonarism, the political principles of the Carbonari, or (transf.) of similar revolutionists.
1832. Athenæum, No. 243. 399. A touch of carbonari-ism.
1857. Sat. Rev., III. 51/1.
1878. Seeley, Stein, III. 487. His subjects … were almost all imbued with the principles of liberty, and indeed with some ideas of carbonarism.
