Science & TechnologyGreek → English
Alembic
/əˈlɛmbɪk/noun
The rounded cap of an old distilling apparatus, and by extension the whole still.
The Greek roots
ἄμβιξ
ámbix
cup, still-head
Literally: “the cup, the still-head”
Follow a root:ἄμβιξ1 word
The story of the word
The still-head that Greek chemists called an ἄμβιξ passed into Arabic as al-anbīq and came back to Europe with the Arabic article welded to the front, exactly as happened to alcohol and alkali. Chaucer's alchemist works with one; Shakespeare shortened it to limbeck. Modern English keeps it mostly as a metaphor for anything that boils experience down to something stronger.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Arabic → Medieval Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 14th century
In a sentence
Rosewater dripped from the alembic into a waiting flask.