Chemic

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Relating to substances and processes involving chemicals or chemistry ; a practitioner skilled in the art of preparing and using chemicals, especially historically before modern chemistry ; pertaining to the properties, reactions, or applications of chemical compounds
2. Connected with the science that studies matter and its transformations ; a person who prepares or works with chemicals, often in traditional or early scientific contexts ; associated with the composition and behavior of elements and compounds in reactions
3. Concerning the branch of science focused on the nature, structure, and alteration of substances ; an individual engaged in chemical preparation or alchemy, especially in earlier periods ; involving the interactions and characteristics of chemical substances and their effects

Etymology: "Chemic" is a short, old-fashioned relative of "chemical," and its history runs back through Latin and Greek to the ancient word for Egypt. The Greeks called Egypt "Khemia" or "Kēmia," which is thought to refer to the dark, fertile soil of the Nile valley, and by late antiquity the name had come to attach to the secret arts of metalworking and transformation practiced there. Medieval Latin writers took this and built "alchimia," the source of "alchemy," while New Latin scholars of the early modern period formed "chemicus," "chimicus," and "chymicus" from the same stem. Those New Latin forms are the direct ancestors of "chemic," and they show how closely the word was tied to alchemy before the two separated. A person who worked with such substances was a chemist in the older sense, practising the craft of transforming matter that we now call chemistry. Over the following centuries, as experiment replaced mystical theory, the adjective narrowed toward the study of composition and reaction, while "chemical" came to dominate everyday use.

Synonyms: chemical, chemist