Main Entry: alem·bic

Pronunciation: \ə-ˈlem-bik\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French & Medieval Latin; Middle French alambic & Medieval Latin alembicum, from Arabic al-anbīq, from al the + anbīq still, from Late Greek ambik-, ambix alembic, from Greek, cap of a still

Date: 14th century

1 : an apparatus used in distillation
2 : something that refines or transmutes as if by distillation <philosophy…filtered through the alembic of Plato's mind — B. T. Shropshire>

[alembic illustration]