"act or process of causing combination with carbonic acid," 1869, from carbonic acid, an old name for carbon dioxide (q.v.), + -ation. Probably immediately from French carbonation (1856).
Entries linking to carbonation
carbon dioxide n.
1869, so called because it consists of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. The chemical was known since mid-18c. under the name fixed air; later as carbonic acid gas (1791). "The term dioxide for an oxide containing two atoms of oxygen came into use in the middle of the 19th century." [Flood].