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alchemy

noun
/ˈælkəmi/US

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.

  1. derived from χυμείᾱ — “art of alloying metals”
  2. derived from كيمياء
  3. derived from alchēmia
  4. derived from alkimie

Definitions

  1. The premodern and early modern study of physical changes, particularly in Europe, Arabia,…

    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.

    • The purpose of physical alchemy—as opposed to its various spiritual pursuits—was to treat the supposed leprosity of base metals such as lead, refining and purifying them into gold.

  2. The causing of any sort of mysterious sudden transmutation.

    • O, he sits high in all the people’s hearts: And that which would appear offence in us, His countenance, like richest alchemy, Will change to virtue and to worthiness.
    • 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, No alchymy to saving.

  3. Any elaborate transformation process or algorithm.

The neighborhood

Derived

alchemical, alchemise, alchemist, alchemistic, alchemistical, alchemize, algeny, practical alchemy

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at alchemy. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01alchemy02elixir03panacea04alchemists05alchemist

A definitional loop anchored at alchemy. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

5 hops · closes at alchemy

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA