Relating to alchemy, chemistry, or alchemical processes; chemical in nature (archaic usage).
From 'chymia' (alchemy/chemistry) + '-ic' (relating to). This adjective form of the obsolete 'chymia' preserves the old spelling and meaning of 'chemical' from when alchemy and chemistry were less clearly distinguished.
When old texts talk about 'chymic operations' or 'chymic art,' they're describing what we'd call chemistry today, but with the understanding that metals might have souls or that creating new substances was touching on divine mysteries—it's the moment science started divorcing itself from mysticism.
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