Etymology · Arabic
اَلْكِيمِيَاء
2 English words descend from Arabic اَلْكِيمِيَاء, most common first.
- chemistryThe branch of natural science that deals with the composition and constitution of substances and the changes that they undergo as a consequence of alterations in the constitution of their molecules.
- alchemyThe 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.