An archaic or variant spelling of alchemy; the medieval pursuit of transmuting base metals into gold or discovering the philosopher's stone.
From the same root as alchemy (Arabic al-kīmiyāʾ), but this spelling represents an earlier English form before the standard 'alchemy' spelling became fixed around the 15th-16th centuries.
Chaucer and other Medieval writers spelled it 'alchimy'—this variant shows how English spelling was chaotic before dictionaries standardized everything. The -y ending was once common for nouns borrowed from other languages.
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