alchemy

== English == === Etymology === From Old French alkimie, arquemie (French alchimie), from Medieval Latin alchēmia, from Arabic اَلْكِيمِيَاء (al-kīmiyāʔ), from Ancient Greek χυμείᾱ (khumeíā, “art of alloying metals”), from χύμα (khúma, “ingot, bar”). Compare Spanish alquimia and Italian alchimia. === Pronunciation === (US) IPA(key): /ˈælkəmi/ === Noun === alchemy (countable and uncountable, plural alchemies) (uncountable) The premodern and early modern study of physical changes, particularly in Europe, Arabia, and China; and chiefly in pursuit of an elixir of immortality, a universal panacea, and/or a philosopher's stone able to transmute base metals into gold, eventually developing into chemistry. (countable) The causing of any sort of mysterious sudden transmutation. 1640, George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum; or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, etc., in The Remains of that Sweet Singer of the Temple George Herbert, London: Pickering, 1841, p. 143,[2] No alchymy to saving. (computing, slang, countable) Any elaborate transformation process or algorithm. ==== Hypernyms ==== ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== ==== See also ==== elixir of life philosophers' stone === References === alchemy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia “alchemy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “alchemy”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.