The flavor or smell produced by burning or charring something, especially in ancient chemistry and alchemy.
From Greek empeirein (to burn in) + -ema (result of an action). Used by alchemists to describe the burnt taste left from chemical operations.
Ancient alchemists had this specific word because they were constantly burning things—herbs, metals, minerals—and needed to describe the exact smoky, charred taste that resulted. It's a word born from trial-and-error experimentation.
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