The word chemistry comes from the earlier study of alchemy, which is a set of practices that encompasses elements of chemistry, metallurgy, philosophy, astrology, astronomy, mysticism and medicine. Alchemy in turn is derived from the Arabic word "كيمياء" meaning "value", it is commonly thought of as the quest to turn lead or another common starting material into gold. This linguistic relation between the pursuit of value and alchemy is thought to have Egyptian origins. Many believe that the Arabic word "alchemy" is derived from the word Chemi or Kimi, which is the ancient name ofEgypt in Egyptian. The word was subsequently borrowed by the Greeks, and from the Greeks by the Arabs when they occupied Alexandria (Egypt) in the 7th century. The Arabs added the Arabic definite article "al" to the word, resulting in the word "الكيمياء" (al-kīmiyā). Thus, an alchemist was called a 'chemist' in popular speech, and later the suffix "-ry" was added to this to describe the art of the chemist as "chemistry".
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