Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Relating to or resembling alchemy; alchemical.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A spagyrist.
  • adjective obsolete Chemical; alchemical.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to alchemical methods of making herbal medicines, such as adding ash of a burned plant to an extract thereof.
  • noun obsolete A spagyrist.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin spagiricus, probably coined by Paracelsus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Late Latin sparygicus, from Ancient Greek to draw, to separate + to assemble.

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Examples

  • Examine it by spagyric art, and you will find that it is nothing else than a _nitrous salt_, which is dilated in the water.

    Manures and the principles of manuring Charles Morton Aikman

  • As Paracelsus himself says of the true "spagyric physicians," who were the alchemists of his period.

    Alchemy: Ancient and Modern 1922

  • In contradistinction to Galenic medicines, which were largely derived from the vegetable kingdom, from this time on we find in the literature references to spagyric medicines and a "spagyrist" was a Paracelsian who regarded chemistry as the basis of all medical knowledge.

    The Evolution of Modern Medicine 1921

  • He saw the true gold into which the beggarly matter of existence may be transmuted by spagyric art; a succession of delicious moments, all the rare flavors of life concentrated, purged of their lees, and preserved in a beautiful vessel.

    The Hill of Dreams Arthur Machen 1905

  • In contradistinction to Galenic medicines, which were largely derived from the vegetable kingdom, from this time on we find in the literature references to spagyric medicines and a "spagyrist" was a Paracelsian who regarded chemistry as the basis of all medical knowledge.

    The Evolution of Modern Medicine A Series of Lectures Delivered at Yale University on the Silliman Foundation in April, 1913 William Osler 1884

  • That old spagyric raven is not the man fit for such a beauty, and I am rather inclined to take an interest in her myself.

    The Queen Pedauque Anatole France 1884

  • "Zosimus, sir, Zosimus of Panopolis, was a learned Greek, who flourished at Alexandria in the third century of the Christian era, and wrote treatises on the spagyric art."

    The Queen Pedauque Anatole France 1884

  • "Here are some of my doings," he said, "which are proof enough that the spagyric art is not the dream of an empty brain."

    The Queen Pedauque Anatole France 1884

  • Let us add that at that epoch the edict of Charles interdicting spagyric labours under pain of prison and hanging, and the bull, _Spondent pariter quas non exhibent_, which Pope

    Là-bas Keene [Translator] Wallace 1877

  • Stuff and nonsense all these globes and powders, with all the other follies of the cabala and the spagyric art. "

    The Queen Pedauque Anatole France 1884

Comments

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  • spagyric - relating to or resembling alchemy

    August 7, 2009