I was at lunch with my co-workers, and the topic of science came up. I made a comment about how during the Dark Ages, much of the science was being done by Arabs, and much of the knowledge we have of the Greeks was preserved by the Arabs.

I got the response, "What about alchemy, there was a lot of that in Europe at that time?"

To which I replied, "Yes, and funny thing, the etymology of alchemy...

quote:

To which I replied, "Yes, and funny thing, the etymology of alchemy...

The Arabic article, "al," and the Greek, "khemia," or something like that (I've forgoten exactly). The use of that article gripes me when I hear people saying "The Al Kaida..." To me they're stammering!

Indeed, the Arabs DID keep the ancient Greek writings alive while my own ancerstors were burning each other at the stake for idiotic religious reasons. The Spanish Golden Age was brought about by the melding of Arabic and Jewish cultures. But then the Christians ruined it! Uhh, what did I just say about my moronic ancestors...

Interesting, Sean.

When looking up the etymology for "alchemy," I found that it is from the Old French word alkemie, but that came from M.L. alkimia (what is M.L.?) and that's from Arabic al-kimiya, which is from the Greek khemeioa. The latter was found in a c.300 C.E. decree of Diocletian against "the old writings of the Egyptians." The etymology didn't seem all that certain (from etymology.com), as it could be from Egypt or Greek. The OED (according to etymology.com) concludes that it is from the Greek word khymeia, meaning the "juices or infusions fo plants."

This brings up a post I just made in the Experimental thread about pirogue being from French and Spanish: How do you decide the origin of a word when so many different languages are involved?