Bibliotheca Polyglotta

▪ The etymology given by Ullmann (see below), though plausible, is doubted by Rolland2014. Nevertheless, the origin of the term is most probably the Grk ξήριον [ksḗrion], see below, section DISC.
▪ The Ar term gave our word elixir.

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▪ »from Grk τό ξήριον [tó ksḗrion], pl. ʔakāsīr, also ʔiksīrāt, […], originally the term for externally applied dry-powder or sprinkling-powder used in medicine. […] By the Arabic word ʔiksīrīn, which is derived from the Syr ksīrīn, an eye-powder is meant in al-Rāzī […] and in ʕAlī b. al-ʕAbbās al-Maǧūsī […], whilst in Pseudo-Ṯābit b. Qurra […] a sprinkling-powder for the treatment of wounds is indicated. / By an early date the name al-ʔiksīr was transferred to the substance with which the alchemists believed it possible to effect the transformation of base metals into precious ones. ʔiksīr al-kīmiyāʔ […], ʔiksīr al-ṣanʕaẗ […], or ʔiksīr al-falāsifaẗ […] are mentioned, and the name is explained by a naive etymology: the substance is called al-ʔiksīr because it breaks down (↗kasara) the inferior form and changes it into a perfect one […]. Usually, however, the alchemists use pseudonyms for the elixir, such as ḥaǧar al-falāsifaẗ (λίθος τῶν φιλοσόφων), ḥaǧar al-ḥukamāʔ, al-ḥaǧar al-mukarram […], al-ḥaǧar al-karīm […], al-ḥaǧar al-ʔaʕẓam, al-ḥaǧar allaḏī laysa bi-ḥaǧar (λίθος ὁς οὐ λίθος), al-bayḍaẗ, al-kibrīt al-ʔaḥmar […]. Al-Ǧildakī (Kitāb Ġāyat al-surūr, ms. Berlin 4183, fol. 100 b) even says of it that the perfect elixir is the homunculus of the philosophers and the child of wisdom (al-ʔiksīr al-tāmm allaḏī huwa ʔinsān al-falāsifaẗ wa-mawlūd al-ḥikmaẗ). The elixirs are called al-ʔiksīr al-ʔaḥmar or al-ʔiksīr al-ʔabyaḍ according to whether they produce gold or silver. / The manufacture of the elixir is the central theme of Muslim alchemy [↗kīmiyāʔ]. According to the authors of the Corpus Djabirianum, the elixir can be manufactured not only from mineral, but also from vegetable and animal substances.The elixirs produced from animal substances, e.g., from the marrow, blood, hair, bone, urine and semen of lions, snakes, foxes etc., are even the best. One may also combine animal, vegetable and mineral substances and thus obtain different sorts of elixir. The production of the elixirs is done on the basis of fractional distillation whereby, after the most complicated processes, the four elements and the four basic qualities are released so that they can then work together on the base metal […]. In general, however, the working of the elixir is described as follows: the elixir is projected onto the inert or molten substance (ἐπιβολή, ṭarḥilqāʔ), which it penetrates like yeast (ζύμη, ↗ḫamīraẗ) through dough, or like poison through the body. It is, therefore, also called “Poison of the Poisons” […]. After it has reduced the metal into the original substance (al-↗sawād), it produces at the right moment, which can also be established astrologically, the change of metals (μεταβολή, ↗qalb, taqlīb, ↗naql) and produces a type of gold which is more precious than the natural one (ašraf min al-maʕdinī). One dirham of the perfect elixir can transform 100, 1,000, or even 40,000 dirhams of base metal into gold. […] Eventually the elixir served the mystics as a symbol of the divine truth which changed an unbeliever into a believer […]. / With the translation of the Arabic alchemistic writings into Latin, the theories of the elixir spread to the West, and Albert the Great, d. 1280, speaks de quodam elixyr alkymico quo metalla convertuntur […]. The notion of the elixir then returned from the field of alchemy to that of medicine: the elixir developed into the panacea, into the life prolonging agent, and eventually became more and more integrated into the pharmacopoeia […]« – M. Ullmann, art. »al-Iksīr«, in EI².
▪ Rolland2014: »Peut-être du grec ξηρίον [xēríon] ‘poudre siccative que l’on met sur les blessures’, dérivé de ξηρός [xērós] ‘sec’, d’étymologie obscure (Chantraine). Nişanyan propose un autre étymon grec, ἐξαίρεσις [eksaíresis] ‘extraction’, dérivé de αἱρέω [airéō] ‘prendre, enlever, saisir’, sans étymologie établie.«
▪ Hassan1986 suggested an origin in the Chinese term for ‘Cosmic soul’.¹ Highly doubtful!

1. »Ek-Chhi,[= 一质[質] yī zhì ?] the one-soul, the universal soul. This was Arabized as Ik-si-(R) or Iksīr «. S. Mahdi Hassan, “The Arabic word ḥarīr as traceable to the Chinese term signifying fine-silk”, Islamic Studies, 25/3 (Autumn 1986): 333-5.

▪ EtymOnline: elixir, »mC13, from mLat elixir ‘philosopher’s stone’, believed by alchemists to transmute baser metals into gold and/or to cure diseases and prolong life, from Arabic al-iksīr ‘the philosopher’s stone’, probably from lGrk xerion ‘powder for drying wounds’, from xeros ‘dry’ […]. Later in medical use for ‘a tincture with more than one base’. General sense of ‘strong tonic’ is 1590 s; used for quack medicines from at least 1630 s.«

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