ALCHEMY

noun Etymology: Middle English alkamie, alquemie, from Middle French or Medieval Latin; Middle French alkimie, from Medieval Latin alchymia, from Arabic al-kīmiyā', from al the + kīmiyā' ~, from Late Greek chēmeia Date: 14th century a medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy aiming to achieve the transmutation of the base metals into gold, the discovery of a universal cure for disease, and the discovery of a means of indefinitely prolonging life, a power or process of transforming something common into something special, an inexplicable or mysterious transmuting, alchemical also alchemic adjective alchemically adverb