Etymology of chemistry

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In the history of science, the etymology of the word chemistry is debatable. It is agreed that the word derives from the word alchemy, which is a European one, derived from the Kimiya (کیمیا) Alchemy al-kīmiyāʾ (الكيمياء). The Arabic term is derived from the Ancient Greek χημία khēmia or χημεία khēmeia.^[1][2] However, the ultimate origin of the root word, chem, is uncertain.^[3]

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, al-kīmiyāʾ is derived from χημία, which is derived from the ancient Egyptian name of Egypt (khem or khm, khame, or khmi, meaning "blackness" Therefore, alchemy is the "Black Art".^[1] However, it is also possible that al-kīmiyāʾ derived from χημεία, meaning "cast together".^[4]

Overview

There are two main views on the derivation of the word, which agree in holding that it has an Arabic descent, the prefix al being the Arabic article. But according to one, the second part of the word comes from the Greek χημεία, pouring, infusion, used in connexion with the study of the juices of plants, and thence extended to chemical manipulations in general; this derivation accounts for the old-fashioned spellings "chymist" and "chymistry". The other view traces it to khem or khame, hieroglyph khmi, which denotes black earth as opposed to barren sand, and occurs in Plutarch as χημεία; on this derivation alchemy is explained as meaning the "Egyptian art". The first occurrence of the word is said to be in a treatise of Julius Firmicus, an astrological writer of the 4th century, but the prefix al there must be the addition of a later copyist. In English, Piers Plowman (1362) contains the phrase "experimentis of alconomye", with variants "alkenemye" and " alknamye". The prefix al began to be dropped about the middle of the 16th century (further details of which are given below).^[5]

Egyptian origin

According to the Egyptologist Wallis Budge, the Arabic word al-kīmiyaʾ actually means "the Egyptian [science]", borrowing from the Coptic word for "Egypt", kēme (or its equivalent in the Mediaeval Bohairic dialect of Coptic, khēme). This Coptic word derives from Demotic kmỉ, itself from ancient Egyptian 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); so this etymology could also explain the nickname "Egyptian black arts". However, according to Mahn, this theory may be an example of folk etymology.^[6] Assuming an Egyptian origin, chemistry is defined as follows:

Chemistry, from the ancient Egyptian word "khēmia" meaning transmutation of earth, is the science of matter at the atomic to molecular scale, dealing primarily with collections of atoms, such as molecules, crystals, and metals.

Thus, according to Budge and others, chemistry derives from an Egyptian word khemein or khēmia, "preparation of black powder", ultimately derived from the name khem, Egypt. A decree of Diocletian, written about 300 AD in Greek, speaks against "the ancient writings of the Egyptians, which treat of the khēmia transmutation of gold and silver".^[7]

Greek origin

Arabic al-kīmiyaʾ or al-khīmiyaʾ (الكيمياء or الخيمياء), according to some, is thought to derive from the Koine Greek word khymeia (χυμεία) meaning "the art of alloying metals, alchemy"; in the manuscripts, this word is also written khēmeia (χημεία) or kheimeia (χειμεία),^[8] which is the probable basis of the Arabic form. According to Mahn, the Greek word χυμεία khumeia originally meant "pouring together", "casting together", "weld", "alloy", etc. (cf. Gk. kheein (χέειν) "to pour"; khuma (χύμα), "that which is poured out, an ingot").^[6] Assuming a Greek origin, chemistry is defined as follows:

Chemistry, from the Greek word χημεία (khēmeia) meaning "cast together" or "pour together", is the science of matter at the atomic to molecular scale, dealing primarily with collections of atoms, such as molecules, crystals, and metals.

From alchemy to chemistry

Later medieval Latin had alchimia / alchymia "alchemy", alchimicus "alchemical", and alchimista "alchemist". The mineralogist and humanist Georg Agricola (died 1555) first dropped the Arabic definite article al- and began, in his Latin works from 1530 on, to write chymia and chymista. As a humanist, Agricola was intent on purifying words and returning them to their classical roots. He had no intent to make a semantic distinction between chymia and alchymia.

During the later sixteenth century Agricola's new coinage slowly propagated. It seems to have been adopted in most of the vernacular European languages following Conrad Gessner's adoption of it in his extremely popular pseudonymous work, De remediis secretis: Liber physicus, medicus, et partim etiam chymicus (Zurich 1552). Gessner's work was frequently re-published in the second half of the 16th century in Latin and was also published in a number of vernacular European languages, with the word spelled without the al-.

In the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe the forms alchimia and chimia (and chymia) were synonymous and interchangeable. The semantic distinction between a rational and practical science of chimia and an occult alchimia arose only in the early eighteenth century.

In 16th, 17th and early 18th century English the spellings — both with and without the "al" — were usually with an i or y as in chimic / chymic / alchimic / alchymic. During the later 18th century the spelling was re-fashioned to use a letter e, as in chemic in English. In English after the spelling shifted from chimical to chemical, there was corresponding shift from alchimical to alchemical, which occurred in the early 19th century.^[9] In French, Italian, Spanish and Russian today it continues to be spelled with an i as in for example Italian chimica "chemistry".

See also

• History of chemistry
• History of science
• History of thermodynamics
• List of Arabic loanwords in English
• List of chemical element name etymologies

References