Transmute

Definition: to change something into something else

From “trans” which means “on the other side of” and the Latin verb “mutare” which means “to change.” Thus, “transmute” means “to complete or effect a change” – get “on the other side of” a change.

Why I Looked It Up

In The Sea We Swim In:

…[the Civil War] was transmuted after the surrender at Appomattox into the “Lost Cause,” a doomed yet noble campaign to preserve a way of life marked by chivalry and crinolines.

(Note: this particular situation is known as the The Lost Cause Argument.)

I had also seen the word from various fantasy books – wizards are known to “transmute” people into frogs, for example. And metallurgists have, for years, attempted to transmute other metals into goal.

Postscript

I found a similar word: “transmogrify.” The definition is remarkably similar to transmute. It shares a prefix, but there’s no clear definition of what “mogrify” means or where it came from, nor is it a word by itself.

Here’s the usage I found:

“Social Darwinism” isn’t simple a cliche. It’s magic, an alchemist’s trick that transmogrifies the gold of freedom into the the lead of Hitlerism.

I don’t have the name of the book in my notes.