Chemistry

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkɛm.ɪ.stɹi/

Definitions

1. The scientific study of matter, its properties, composition, structure, and the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions
2. The branch of science that investigates substances, their interactions, properties, and the transformations they experience during various processes
3. A field that explores the nature and interactions of matter, detailing its characteristics and the chemical reactions it undergoes

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "chemistry" is how its ancestor was once a craft of pouring and mixing metals rather than a science. In ancient Greek, "khumeía" meant "art of alloying metals," built from "khúma," meaning "fluid," which itself came from "khéō," "to pour." Arabic writers took the Greek term and prefixed the article "al-," producing "al-kīmiyāʔ," and medieval Latin turned that into "alchēmia." Those alchemists were the ones seeking to transform base metals into gold. The word reached English through a chain of French and Latin forms. Middle French "chymie" and later French "chimie" carried it forward, while "chemist" arrived from the older "chymist," which traced back to Medieval Latin "alchimista." The noun "chemistry" was first coined in 1605, formed simply by adding the suffix "-ry" to "chemist," the same ending found in words like "poetry" and "geometry."

Synonyms: chemical science, biochemistry, organic chemistry