Path: typhoon.sonic.net!not-for-mail Newsgroups: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.metaphysics.alchemy Subject: CG: Alchemy, Term's Origin From: tyaginator Reply-To: canuck@SPAMcomco.ne.jp User-Agent: nn/6.6.0 Lines: 34 Message-ID: <3qjN7.7819$DD2.88359@typhoon.sonic.net> Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2001 05:09:19 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 208.201.242.18 X-Complaints-To: abuse@sonic.net X-Trace: typhoon.sonic.net 1007010559 208.201.242.18 (Wed, 28 Nov 2001 21:09:19 PST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 21:09:19 PST Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.magick.tyagi:30076 alt.magick:277775 alt.metaphysics.alchemy:146 [posted to sacredlandscapelist@yahoogroups.com by "CG" ] Mark, Neil, About the derivation of the term "alchemy", there are a lot of people who would love to say that this comes from the word for "Egypt": I was just visiting a site on hieroglyphics and the writer says, "The ancient Egyptians were possibly the first civilisation (sic) to practice the scientific arts. Indeed, the word chemistry is derived from the word Alchemy which is the ancient name for Egypt." Needless to say, he doesn't seem to provide any room for dispute about that very intriguing statement. I would caution against this reading of the origin of alchemy. I know you both have suggested that there are alternate stories about the origin, but you didn't include them. The other vying argument for the origin of the term "alchemy" is that it comes from the Greek khumos, meaning "fluid". According to Ayto's "Dictionary of Word Origins", "Alchemy comes, via Old French alkemie and medieval Latin alchimia, from Arabic alkimia. Broken down into its component parts, this represents Arabic al "the" and Kimia, a word borrowed by Arabic from Greek khemia "alchemy"-- that is, the art of transmuting base metals into gold. (It has been suggested that khemia is the same word as Khemia, the ancient name for Egypt, on the grounds that alchemy originated in Egypt, but it seems more likely that it derives from Greek khumos "fluid"-- source of English chyme-- itself based on the verb khein "pour". Modern English chemistry comes not directly from Greek khemia, but from alchemy, with the loss of the first syllable." -Chris EOF