Rumplestiltskin spun straw into gold in the old fairy tale. What is
the word for that?

transmogrification

- Hammer

Hi executivehotline,

I have not been able to find a word that means "spinning straw into
gold."  However, I did come up with the word 'aurify,' which means "to
transform into gold."  Perhaps this will be of some use to you.

Reverse Dictionary
http://www.ultralingua.net/dictionary/

Definition of 'aurify' at Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=aurify

Regards,
sldreamer

There is also "transmute", which is often used in reference to
changing lead into gold.

- Hammer

Even in the original German, this phrase is not one word; it is "Stroh
zu Gold spinnen".

"Rumpelstilzchen - der Brüder Grimm"
Virginia Commonwealth University - Department of Foreign Languages
http://www.fln.vcu.edu//grimm/rumpel.html

Maybe a good neologism would be "strawrify." (straw + aurify)  :-)

Echoing hammer's response, transmutation.

A bit on the origin:     http://www.thorshof.org/spinyarn.htm

"The concept of spinning straw into gold may have originated in the
increase of value created by spinning. Flax fibre is fairly similar to
straw in appearance being the broken up stalks of the flax plant. As
spinners often sold their yarn it represented wealth, hence straw into
gold."

Might try a book of alchemy.