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countable and uncountable, plural archai
(philosophy, often italicized) The first principle of existing things in pre-Socratic philosophy, initially assumed to be of water. quotations examples
In more modern times both the moving and the matter moved appear more complex and malleable, and less drawn from the realm of everyday experience. The substance may be dark matter and quarks rather than water or air, and the arche may be gravity or string harmonics.
2012, Lydia Pyne, Stephen J. Pyne, chapter 3, in The Last Lost World, Penguin