alchemy

FREQ #20080

n. 炼金术, 魔力 [化] 炼丹术; 炼金术; 金丹术

发音

US /ˈælkəmi/

词形变化

alchemies 复数 alchemies

别名

alchimy alchymie alchymy

释义与例句

n.
  1. 1.

    The premodern and early modern study of physical changes, particularly in Europe, Arabia, and China; and chiefly in pursuit of an elixir of immortality, a universal panacea, and/or a philosopher's stone able to transmute base metals into gold, eventually developing into chemistry.

    炼金术

    不可数 可数

    The purpose of physical alchemy—as opposed to its various spiritual pursuits—was to treat the supposed leprosity of base metals such as lead, refining and purifying them into gold.

  2. 2.

    The causing of any sort of mysterious sudden transmutation.

    可数 不可数

    1640, George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum; or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, etc., in The Remains of that Sweet Singer of the Temple George Herbert, London: Pickering, 1841, p. 143, No alchymy to saving.

  3. 3.

    Any elaborate transformation process or algorithm.

    可数 俚语 计算机 工程 数学 不可数

词汇关系

名词

同义词 1

chemistry

上位词 1

pseudoscience

相关短语

practical alchemy

词源

From Old French alkimie, arquemie (French alchimie), from Medieval Latin alchēmia, from Arabic اَلْكِيمِيَاء (al-kīmiyāʔ), from Ancient Greek χυμείᾱ (khumeíā, “art of alloying metals”), from χύμα (khúma, “ingot, bar”). Compare Spanish alquimia and Italian alchimia.

来源：wiktionary