Editing Alchemy (section)

== Etymology ==
{{See also|Etymology of chemistry}}
The word alchemy comes from [[old French]] ''alquemie'', ''alkimie'', used in [[Medieval Latin]] as {{lang|la-x-medieval|alchymia}}. This name was itself adopted from the [[Arabic]] word {{transliteration|ar|al-kīmiyā}} ({{lang|ar|الكيمياء}}). The Arabic {{transliteration|ar|al-kīmiyā}} in turn was a borrowing of the [[Late Greek]] term ''khēmeía'' ({{lang|el|χημεία}}), also spelled ''khumeia'' ({{lang|el|χυμεία}}) and ''khēmía'' ({{lang|el|χημία}}), with ''[[al-]]'' being the Arabic definite article 'the'.<ref name="OED">{{OED|alchemy}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Liddell |first1=Henry George |last2=Scott |first2=Robert |last3=Jones |first3=Henry Stuart |year=1940 |title=A Greek-English Lexicon |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=xumei/a |postscript=;|access-date=23 February 2021|archive-date=12 November 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191112060839/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dxumei%2Fa|url-status=live}} {{Cite web |url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/alchemy |title=alchemy |website=Oxford Dictionaries {{!}} English|access-date=30 September 2018|archive-date=23 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223133900/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/alchemy}}</ref> Together this association can be interpreted as 'the process of [[Magnum opus (alchemy)|transmutation]] by which to fuse or reunite with the divine or original form'. Several etymologies have been proposed for the Greek term. The first was proposed by Zosimos of Panopolis (3rd–4th centuries), who derived it from the name of a book, the ''Khemeu.''<ref>George Syncellus, ''Chronography'', 18–9</ref><ref>On the ancient definitions of alchemy in ancient Greek and Syriac texts see Matteo Martelli. 2014. "The Alchemical Art of Dyeing: The Fourfold Division of Alchemy and the Enochian Tradition", In: Dupré S. (eds) ''Laboratories of Art'', Springer, Cham.</ref> Hermann Diels argued in 1914 that it rather derived from χύμα,<ref>Hermann Diels, ''Antike Technik'', Leipzig: Teubner, 1914, pp. 108–109. [[iarchive:bub gb LoEAAAAAMAAJ/page/n125/mode/2up|Read online]]</ref> used to describe metallic objects formed by casting.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=xeiw&la=greek#lexicon |title=Greek Word Study Tool |website=perseus.tufts.edu|access-date=14 February 2020|archive-date=7 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107084344/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=xeiw&la=greek#lexicon|url-status=live}}</ref>

Others trace its roots to the [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] name ''{{lang|egy-Latn|kēme}}'' (hieroglyphic 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 ''{{lang|egy-Latn|kmt}}'' ), meaning 'black earth', which refers to the fertile and [[wikt:auriferous|auriferous]] soil of the Nile valley, as opposed to red desert sand.<ref name="OED" /> According to the Egyptologist [[Wallis Budge]], the Arabic word ''{{lang|ar-Latn|al-kīmiya}}ʾ'' actually means "the Egyptian [science]", borrowing from the [[Coptic language|Coptic]] word for "Egypt", ''{{lang|cop-Latn|kēme}}'' (or its equivalent in the Mediaeval [[Bohairic]] dialect of Coptic, ''{{lang|cop-Latn|khēme}}''). This Coptic word derives from [[Demotic Egyptian|Demotic]] ''{{lang|egy-Latn|kmỉ}}'', itself from ancient [[Egyptian language|Egyptian]] ''{{lang|egy-Latn|kmt}}''. The ancient Egyptian word referred to both the country and the colour "black" (Egypt was the "black Land", by contrast with the "red Land", the surrounding desert).