"Battery not included." Buy a $150 gadget and chances are it doesn't come
with batteries that cost, maybe, $2. I'm sure manufacturers have their
reasons, perhaps something to do with the shelf life of the batteries.
If this week's words came packaged, their box would say "Definite articles
included." No need to shop around for a definite article in the right size
and sex.
When English borrows a word from another language, it sometimes takes its
definite article too. We imported the word alligator from the Spanish el
lagarto (the lizard). Alcohol came from the Arabic al-kul (the powdered
antimony, and by association, substances obtained by sublimation or
distillation). Many, such as alkali, algebra, lacrosse (from French: the
cross), and others, are among the words bringing their own definite article,
but it's not always so obvious, as we'll see later this week.
An extreme example of this inadvertent duplication of definite articles
is in the name of the Los Angeles site of prehistoric fossils of animals
that had been stuck in tar pits. It's called The La Brea Tar Pits which
would literally translate as The The Tar Tar Pits.
alchemy (AL-kuh-mee) noun
1. A medieval predecessor of chemistry devoted to things such
as converting common metals into precious metals, finding
a universal solvent (alkahest), and finding a universal
remedy for diseases.
2. A mysterious or magical process of transformation.
[Via Old French and Medieval Latin from Arabic al-kimiya (the chemistry),
from Greek khemeia (transmutation).]
Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=alchemy
-Anu Garg (garg wordsmith.org)
"An obscure mix of alchemy and chemistry yielded a waxy, glowing
goo that spontaneously burst into flame -- the element now known
as phosphorus."
Sean Markey; 20 Things You Didn't Know About; Discover (New York);
Nov 2006.
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Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/alchemy.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/alchemy.ram
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