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alembic (uh-LIM-bek) - n., a chemical apparatus, consisting of two retorts connected by a tube, used to distill substances; something that refines or purifies as if by distillation.
Thanks, Merriam-Webster!
Modern stills are more or less direct descendants of medieval alembics. I've been mispronouncing it all these years with a stress on the first syllable -- which, nope. The name dates to the 13th century as Middle English alambic, from Old French, from Medieval Latin alembicus, from Arabic al-'inbīq, which is al-, the + 'inbīq, still (from Greek ambix, cup with a spout/cap of a still) -- the al=the of Arabic being incorporated into other borrowings, such as algebra, literally the joining (of numbers).
---L.
Thanks, Merriam-Webster!
Modern stills are more or less direct descendants of medieval alembics. I've been mispronouncing it all these years with a stress on the first syllable -- which, nope. The name dates to the 13th century as Middle English alambic, from Old French, from Medieval Latin alembicus, from Arabic al-'inbīq, which is al-, the + 'inbīq, still (from Greek ambix, cup with a spout/cap of a still) -- the al=the of Arabic being incorporated into other borrowings, such as algebra, literally the joining (of numbers).
---L.
