alchemy

nounB1

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Danh từ

noun

Plural noun:

alchemies

1.
(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.
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.
(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, No alchymy to saving.
3.
(countable, slang)(computing, slang, countable) Any elaborate transformation process or algorithm.

Từ liên quan

Cùng gốc / liên quan

algenyalchemicalalchemisealchemistalchemisticalchemisticalalchemizepractical alchemyelixir of lifephilosophers' stone

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Nguồn gốc từ

From Old French alkimie, arquemie (alchimie), from alchēmia, from Arabic اَلْكِيمِيَاء, from Ancient Greek χυμείᾱ (art of alloying metals), from χύμα (ingot, bar). Compare alquimia and alchimia.