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alquimia

alchemy — the old art that sought to turn metals into goldarte antiguo que buscaba transmutar los metales en oro

Comes from Arabic

الكِيمِيَاء

al-kīmiyāʾ

“the philosopher's stone; the art of transmutation”«la piedra filosofal; el arte de transmutar»

In Andalusi Arabic: الكِيمْيَا al-kīmya

Arabic today says

خِيمِيَاء

khīmiyāʾ

The article

Spanish kept the Arabic article al- glued to the word.

Arabic itself had taken it from Greek.

The story

Arabic took kīmiyāʾ from Greek, and today that same word means "chemistry"; for the alchemy of the ancients Arabic uses the variant خيمياء or الكيمياء القديمة ("the old chemistry").El árabe tomó kīmiyāʾ del griego, y hoy esa misma palabra significa «química»; para la alquimia de los antiguos se usa la variante خيمياء o «الكيمياء القديمة».