alchemy
Pluralalchemies (some meanings)
- 1The premodern and early modern study of how matter changes, chiefly seeking an elixir of immortality, a panacea, or a philosopher's stone to turn base metals into gold; it grew into chemistry.
The court physician dabbled in alchemy, convinced he could find the philosopher's stone.
Her dissertation traces how alchemy slowly gave way to experimental chemistry.
Note
Serious minds took it seriously. Francis Bacon defended it in 1605 with Aesop's fable of sons digging over a vineyard for buried gold, and Isaac Newton, for all his physics, gave it years of private study.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Bacon's discussion appeared in 1605, in the first publication of The Advancement of Learning. gutenberg.org
- Francis Bacon defended alchemy's productive results. gutenberg.org
- Bacon used a fable attributed to Aesop about sons digging a vineyard for buried gold. gutenberg.org
- Isaac Newton devoted years to largely private alchemical study. newton.dlib.indiana.edu
- 2A mysterious, seemingly magical, or complex and hidden process that transforms one thing into something different.
Through some alchemy of grief and time, his anger softened into forgiveness.
Good editing performs a quiet alchemy, turning a rambling draft into a story worth reading.
UsageOften used with an adjective or of: a strange alchemy, the alchemy of time.
Note
The gold-making dream of the old science turned into a figure of speech, and the figure is countable: a quiet alchemy, some alchemy of grief and time. Poets made the move early. In Julius Caesar a man's countenance, "like richest alchemy," turns offense to virtue, and Shelley credits poetry with a secret alchemy that turns poisonous waters to potable gold.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Literary writers used gold-making alchemy figuratively for other transformations. en.wikisource.org
- The early literary example in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar compares a man's countenance to richest alchemy transforming offense into virtue; Casca speaks about Brutus. gutenberg.org
- Percy Bysshe Shelley attributes to poetry a secret alchemy transforming poisonous waters into potable gold in A Defence of Poetry. en.wikisource.org
Practice
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Origin
The word starts with Ancient Greek khumeíā ("the art of alloying metals"), probably from khúma ("ingot, bar"). Arabic took it as al-kīmiyāʔ, Medieval Latin as alchēmia, and Old French as alkimie, arquemie (modern French alchimie), the form that reached English. Spanish alquimia and Italian alchimia are comparable.