elixir الإكسير al-iksīr, alchemical philosopher's stone, i.e. a pulverized mineral agent by which you could supposedly make gold (also silver) out of copper or other metals. The Arabs took the word from Greek xēron, then prepended Arabic al- = "the". The Greek had entered Arabic meaning a dry powder for treating wounds, and it has a couple of records in medieval Arabic in that sense.[1] Al-Biruni (died 1048) is an example of a medieval Arabic writer who used the word in the alchemy sense, for making gold.[33] The Arabic alchemy sense entered Latin in the 12th century.[3] Elixir is in all European languages today.