alchemy - meaning and definition. What is alchemy
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What (who) is alchemy - definition

BRANCH OF ANCIENT PROTOSCIENTIFIC NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
History of Alchemy; Alchemists; Operative Alchemy; Alchemical; Alchemistry; Alchemic; Alchemi; History of alchemy; Alchemy magic; Genesis of alchemy; Renaissance alchemy; Decline of Western alchemy; AlchemY; Alchemist; Alchemy in history; Alchemical literature; Greek alchemy
  • ''Alchemist [[Sendivogius]]'' (1566–1636) by [[Jan Matejko]], 1867
  • An alchemist, pictured in Charles Mackay's ''[[Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds]]''
  • Depiction of an [[Ouroboros]] from the alchemical treatise ''[[Aurora consurgens]]'' (15th century), [[Zentralbibliothek Zürich]], Switzerland
  • Taoist alchemists often use this alternate version of the [[taijitu]].
  • Mandala illustrating common alchemical concepts, symbols, and processes. From ''Spiegel der Kunst und Natur''.
  • Jabir ibn Hayyan]] (Geber), Codici Ashburnhamiani 1166, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence
  • ''[[The Alchemist in Search of the Philosopher's Stone]]'', by Joseph Wright, 1771
  • [[Robert Boyle]]
  • "An illuminated page from a book on alchemical processes and receipts", ca. 15th century
  • Zosimos]], from [[Marcelin Berthelot]], ''Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs'' (3 vol., Paris, 1887–1888)

alchemy         
Alchemy was a form of chemistry studied in the Middle Ages, which was concerned with trying to discover ways to change ordinary metals into gold.
N-UNCOUNT
Alchemy         
·noun Miraculous power of transmuting something common into something precious.
II. Alchemy ·noun A mixed metal composed mainly of brass, formerly used for various utensils; hence, a trumpet.
III. Alchemy ·noun An imaginary art which aimed to transmute the baser metals into gold, to find the panacea, or universal remedy for diseases, ·etc. It led the way to modern chemistry.
alchemy         
['alk?mi]
¦ noun
1. the medieval forerunner of chemistry, concerned particularly with attempts to convert base metals into gold or to find a universal elixir.
2. a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination.
Derivatives
alchemic al'k?m?k adjective
alchemical adjective
alchemist noun
alchemize or alchemise verb
Origin
ME: via OFr. and med. L. from Arab. alkimiya', from al 'the' + kimiya' (from Gk khemia, khemeia 'art of transmuting metals').

Wikipedia

Alchemy

Alchemy (from Arabic: al-kīmiyā; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, khumeía) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first attested in a number of pseudepigraphical texts written in Greco-Roman Egypt during the first few centuries AD.

Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials. Common aims were chrysopoeia, the transmutation of "base metals" (e.g., lead) into "noble metals" (particularly gold); the creation of an elixir of immortality; and the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease. The perfection of the human body and soul was thought to result from the alchemical magnum opus ("Great Work"). The concept of creating the philosophers' stone was variously connected with all of these projects.

Islamic and European alchemists developed a basic set of laboratory techniques, theories, and terms, some of which are still in use today. They did not abandon the Ancient Greek philosophical idea that everything is composed of four elements, and they tended to guard their work in secrecy, often making use of cyphers and cryptic symbolism. In Europe, the 12th-century translations of medieval Islamic works on science and the rediscovery of Aristotelian philosophy gave birth to a flourishing tradition of Latin alchemy. This late medieval tradition of alchemy would go on to play a significant role in the development of early modern science (particularly chemistry and medicine).

Modern discussions of alchemy are generally split into an examination of its exoteric practical applications and its esoteric spiritual aspects, despite criticisms by scholars such as Eric J. Holmyard and Marie-Louise von Franz that they should be understood as complementary. The former is pursued by historians of the physical sciences, who examine the subject in terms of early chemistry, medicine, and charlatanism, and the philosophical and religious contexts in which these events occurred. The latter interests historians of esotericism, psychologists, and some philosophers and spiritualists. The subject has also made an ongoing impact on literature and the arts.

Examples of use of alchemy
1. The mechanism behind this apparent maternal alchemy remains a mystery.
2. It needed still more zest, and some personal alchemy.
3. Skeptics, though, fear the claims stretch the bounds of existing technology to the point of alchemy.
4. It‘s a mercurial world of alchemy." All of which is fair enough.
5. Therefore, we must make massive cuts – because there is no budgetary alchemy.