Arabic definite article
The word alchemy comes from Old French "alquemie", "alkimie", used in Medieval Latin as . This name was itself brought from the Arabic word "al-kīmiyā" ( or ) composed of two parts: the Late Greek term "khēmeía" (χημεία), also spelled "khumeia" (χυμεία) and "khēmía" (χημία) - see below, and the Arabic definite article "al-" (), meaning 'The'. Together this association can be interpreted as 'the process of transmutation by which to fuse or reunite with the divine or original form'. Several etymologies have been proposed for the Greek term. The first was proposed by Zosimos of Panopolis (3rd–4th centuries), who derived it from the name of a book, the "Khemeu." Hermanm Diels argued in 1914 that it rather derived from χύμα, used to describe metallic objects formed by casting.