Arabic 'al-kimiya' (the transmutation art), likely from 'Khemia,' an ancient name for Egypt meaning 'black land.'
The medieval forerunner of chemistry, concerned with the transmutation of matter, especially the attempt to convert base metals into gold; figuratively, a seemingly magical process of transformation.
From Old French 'alquemie,' from Medieval Latin 'alchimia,' from Arabic 'al-kīmiyāʾ' (الكيمياء). The Arabic word combines the definite article 'al-' with 'kīmiyāʾ,' which is most likely from Greek 'khēmeía' (χημεία), the art of transmuting metals. The Greek term may derive from 'Khēmía' (Χημία), an ancient name for Egypt meaning 'black land,' referring to the dark Nile soil — or from Greek 'khymeía' (
The word 'chemistry' is simply 'alchemy' with the Arabic definite article 'al-' stripped off. When the discipline became a rigorous science in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, dropping the 'al-' symbolically marked the break from mystical transmutation to empirical experimentation.