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prettygoodwordTheme week -- I just happened to have about 5 words beginning with A near the top of the queue, so let's put 'em together and make it a full week:
azoth (AZ-oth) - n., (alch.) mercury.
That is, the liquid metal. Initially, the word referred to the universal agent of transformation, which became identified with mercury because of its fluid nature, and thus mercury itself came to be seen as the first principle of all metals from which all others are derived by transformation. Paracelsus reused the word as the name for a universal remedy ("panacea"). The word is an alteration of Medieval Latin azoc, from Arabic az-zā'ūq, the quicksilver (where az- is al, the), from Syriac zīwag, of Iranian origin.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
---L.
azoth (AZ-oth) - n., (alch.) mercury.
That is, the liquid metal. Initially, the word referred to the universal agent of transformation, which became identified with mercury because of its fluid nature, and thus mercury itself came to be seen as the first principle of all metals from which all others are derived by transformation. Paracelsus reused the word as the name for a universal remedy ("panacea"). The word is an alteration of Medieval Latin azoc, from Arabic az-zā'ūq, the quicksilver (where az- is al, the), from Syriac zīwag, of Iranian origin.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
---L.
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Date: 2019-05-13 03:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-13 04:02 pm (UTC)Totally!