Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French & Medieval Latin; Middle French alambic & Medieval Latin alembicum, from Arabic al-anbIq, from al the + anbIq 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]