1.
[syn: chemistry, interpersonal chemistry, alchemy]
2. a pseudoscientific forerunner of chemistry in medieval times;
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Alchemy \Al"che*my\, n. [OF. alkemie, arquemie, F. alchimie, Ar.
al-k[imac]m[imac]a, fr. late Gr. ?, for ?, a mingling,
infusion, ? juice, liquid, especially as extracted from
plants, fr. ? to pour; for chemistry was originally the art
of extracting the juices from plants for medicinal purposes.
Cf. Sp. alquimia, It. alchimia. Gr. ? is prob. akin to L.
fundere to pour, Goth. guitan, AS. ge['o]tan, to pour, and so
to E. fuse. See Fuse, and cf. Chemistry.]
1. 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.
[1913 Webster]
2. A mixed metal composed mainly of brass, formerly used for
various utensils; hence, a trumpet. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
3. Miraculous power of transmuting something common into
something precious.
[1913 Webster]
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy. --Shak.
[1913 Webster] Alchymistic
Alchymist
Alchymic
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
alchemy
n 1: the way two individuals relate to each other; "their
chemistry was wrong from the beginning -- they hated each
other"; "a mysterious alchemy brought them together" [syn:
chemistry, interpersonal chemistry, alchemy]
2: a pseudoscientific forerunner of chemistry in medieval times
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
62 Moby Thesaurus words for "alchemy":
about-face, assimilation, assumption, becoming, bewitchery, change,
change-over, charm, conversion, divination, enchantment, fetishism,
flip-flop, glamour, gramarye, growth, hoodoo, juju, jujuism, lapse,
magic, natural magic, naturalization, necromancy, obeah, passage,
progress, re-formation, reconversion, reduction, resolution,
reversal, rune, shamanism, shift, sorcery, sortilege, spell,
spellbinding, spellcasting, switch, switch-over, sympathetic magic,
thaumaturgia, thaumaturgics, thaumaturgism, thaumaturgy, theurgy,
transformation, transit, transition, turning into, vampirism,
volte-face, voodoo, voodooism, wanga, white magic, witchcraft,
witchery, witchwork, wizardry