A magical or medicinal potion believed to cure illness or grant immortality; a solution used in medieval alchemy.
From Arabic al-iksīr, itself borrowed from Greek xērion meaning 'powder for drying wounds.' The Arabic definite article 'al-' became permanently attached to the word. It entered Medieval Latin as elixir through translations of Arabic alchemical texts in 12th-century Spain, then passed into Old French and Middle English by the 14th century.
The 'al-' at the beginning is actually the Arabic word for 'the' that got permanently stuck to this Greek word! Arabic alchemists were so influential that when Europeans learned about this magical powder, they kept the Arabic article as part of the word itself.
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