Alchemises

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Transforming a substance through a seemingly magical process
2. converting base materials into valuable ones, often in a metaphorical sense
3. achieving an extraordinary or remarkable change in quality or nature

Etymology: "Alchemises" is the third-person singular of a verb built from the noun "alchemy" plus the suffix "-ise", a combination that tells you something about how the word arrived. Alchemy itself travelled a long road: it passed from ancient Greek "khumeia", a term for metalworking and the mixing of substances, into Arabic as "al-kimiya'", and then into medieval Latin as "alchemia" before reaching Old French and English. The physical craft of transforming base metals into gold became, over centuries, a byword for any dramatic transformation. The verb took the other route. English speakers attached the suffix "-ise", which comes through Middle French from Late Latin "-izare" and originally formed verbs meaning to make or to treat in a certain way, to the noun "alchemy". The result describes turning something ordinary into something remarkable, which is exactly the metaphorical sense the alchemists would have hoped for. The verb's meaning therefore lives entirely in the figurative, not in the chemistry lab.

Synonyms: transmutes, transforms, converts, metamorphoses

Antonyms: preserves, maintains, retains