Also alc-, alch-. [first used in med.L. by Paracelsus, and believed to have been arbitrarily invented by him with a form simulating Arabic. Used in the same forms in most of the European languages.] The ‘universal solvent’ of the alchemists.
1641. French, Distill., v. 109. With his Alkahest [printed Altahest] all stones … may be turned into water.
1657. G. Starkey, Helmont’s Vind., 294. There are noble Arcana’s in Nature preparable by the great Dissolvent, the liquor Alchahest.
1705. W. Y-Worth, Compl. Distiller, II. 243. The great Hilech, or the Circulatum Minus of Paracelsus, called by his great Interpreter Van Helmont, Alkahest, from the German word Al-gehest, which signifies All Spirit.
1812. Sir H. Davy, Chem. Philos., 323. The alkahest, or universal solvent imagined by the alchemists.
b. fig.
1832. Carlyle, Misc. (1857), III. 167. Quite another alcahest is needed.
1866. Alger, Solit. Nat. & Man, IV. 351. An intellectual alkahest, melting the universe into an idea.
