Alcahest

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈal.kə.hɛst/

Definitions

1. A fictional substance reputed to dissolve any substance without limitation
2. An imagined solution that purportedly can convert common metals into gold and dissolve all matter
3. A legendary alchemical solvent believed capable of breaking down any material without exception

Etymology: The alchemist Paracelsus, active in the early 1500s, is credited with coining "alcahest" for a substance he imagined could dissolve anything. The name looks Arabic, with its initial "al-" the familiar Arabic article, which is exactly why it was chosen: it lent an air of ancient, exotic learning to what was a made-up term. Paracelsus was writing in Latin and German in an era when alchemical authority came from secret knowledge, and an impressive-sounding name helped a claim seem older and deeper than it was. The word then passed into Late Latin as "alcahest" and from there into English, where it kept the meaning of a universal solvent, a liquid capable of dissolving every substance. Alchemists sought it as the key to transmuting matter, and because a vessel capable of holding it was hard to imagine, the search tended to become a self-cancelling puzzle. The word survives today almost entirely as a marker of that impossible ambition.

Synonyms: universal solvent, alchemical substance