alchemist

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French alkemiste, also alquemiste and alchymiste, recorded from about 1370, and directly borrowed from Medieval Latin alchimista,^[2][3][4][5] formed from alchymia (“alchemy”) and -ista.^[2][6][7] Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com call the Latin source probable.^[6][7] The Medieval Latin word was common from the 13th century in British and continental writers; the OED compares Catalan alquimista, Spanish alquimista, Italian alchimista (1282) and Middle High German alchemist.^[2] Alchymia is the source of alchemy, which came through Arabic اَلْكِيمِيَاء (al-kīmiyāʾ) from Ancient Greek χυμεία (khumeía, “art of alloying metals”).^[1][8] Middle English also had alkamistre, with the agent suffix -er,^[6][4] and the forms alchemister and alkanamyer.^[4][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A person who studies or practises alchemy: before about 1425, in an English translation of Guy de Chauliac's Grande Chirurgie.^[2] The OED's 1989 edition had dated the word to 1514,^[9] and Etymonline gives the 1510s;^[4] Merriam-Webster gives the 15th century^[6] and Dictionary.com 1350–1400.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer used the form alkamystre once.^[10][11] The figurative use is recorded from before 1616, in Shakespeare's King John.^[2] The Shorter Oxford notes the spelling alchymist, now obsolete.^[3]

Timeline

• late 14th century – alkamistre, alchemister, a practitioner of alchemy.^[4][10]
• c. 1425 – alchemist, a person who practises alchemy.^[2]
• before 1616 – figurative use, in Shakespeare.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who studies or practises alchemy, especially one who tried to turn base metals into gold: The alchemist kept his furnace burning day and night.^{[12][6][13][2]}
2. (figurative) A person who seems to transform things, as if by alchemy.^[2][9]

Word family

• alchemistic

Related words

• alchemy
• chemist
• chemistry

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ Skeat, W. W., ed. (1894), The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, vol. VI: Glossarial Index, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin