Abracadabra: Difference between revisions
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{{short description|Magic word | {{short description|Magic word}} | ||
{{About|an incantational word}} | {{About|an incantational word}} | ||
{{Italic title}} | {{Italic title}} | ||
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''Abracadabra'' is of unknown origin, and is first attested in a second-century work of Serenus Sammonicus relating to a cure for a fever.<ref name="OED">{{citation|title=[[Oxford English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2009|section=abracadabra}}</ref> | ''Abracadabra'' is of unknown origin, and is first attested in a second-century work of Serenus Sammonicus relating to a cure for a fever.<ref name="OED">{{citation|title=[[Oxford English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2009|section=abracadabra}}</ref> | ||
Some conjectural etymologies are:<ref name="graham">{{citation|url=http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/12/performative-utterances/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226114659/http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/12/performative-utterances/|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 26, 2017|title=Magic words: performative utterance in fact and fantasy|author=Elyse Graham|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|date=December 30, 2016|work=Oxford Dictionaries}}</ref> from | Some conjectural etymologies are:<ref name="graham">{{citation|url=http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/12/performative-utterances/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170226114659/http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/12/performative-utterances/|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 26, 2017|title=Magic words: performative utterance in fact and fantasy|author=Elyse Graham|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|date=December 30, 2016|work=Oxford Dictionaries}}</ref> from a phrase in [[Aramaic]] that means "I create like the word" ({{lang|arc|אברא כדברא}}),<ref>{{cite book|last=Kushner|first=Lawrence|title=The Book of Words: Talking Spiritual Life, Living Spiritual Talk|date=1998|publisher=Jewish Lights Publishing|isbn=1580230202|page=11|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hhtaTSSZmDYC&q=%22The+Book+of+Words%22+kushner+abracadabra}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Lew|first1=Alan|title=This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared|date=August 2003|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VVRAqM2D_7sC&q=alan+lew+abracadabra&pg=PT108|publisher=Little, Brown and Company|isbn=9780759528215|access-date=16 March 2015}}</ref> to etymologies that point to similar words in Latin and Greek such as [[abraxas]]<ref name="OEDOnline">{{citation|url=http://oed.com/view/Entry/539|section=abracadabra|title=Oxford English Dictionary Online|access-date=September 1, 2017}}</ref> or to its similarity to the first four letters of the Greek alphabet (alpha-beta-gamma-delta or ΑΒΓΔ).<ref>{{cite book|last=Flanders|first=Judith|title=A Place for Everything:The Curious History of Alphabetical Order|date=2020|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=9781541675070|page=xxv}}</ref> However, "no documentation has been found to support any of the various conjectures".<ref name="OEDOnline" /> | ||
The historian Don Skemer suggests that it might originate from the Hebrew phrase ''ha brachah dabarah'' (name of the blessed), said to be a magical phrase.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 1, 2024 |title=The ancient—and mysterious—history of 'abracadabra' |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/abracadabra-meaning-malaria-spell-magic |access-date=March 2, 2024 |website=NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC |language=en |quote=Medieval historian Don Skemer, a specialist in magic and former curator of manuscripts at Princeton University, suggests abracadabra could derive from the Hebrew phrase “ha brachah dabarah,” which means “name of the blessed” and was regarded as a magical name.}}</ref> | The historian Don Skemer suggests that it might originate from the Hebrew phrase ''ha brachah dabarah'' (name of the blessed), said to be a magical phrase.<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 1, 2024 |title=The ancient—and mysterious—history of 'abracadabra' |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/abracadabra-meaning-malaria-spell-magic |access-date=March 2, 2024 |website=NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC |language=en |quote=Medieval historian Don Skemer, a specialist in magic and former curator of manuscripts at Princeton University, suggests abracadabra could derive from the Hebrew phrase “ha brachah dabarah,” which means “name of the blessed” and was regarded as a magical name.}}</ref> | ||
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==See also== | ==See also== | ||
*{{annotated link|Avada | *{{annotated link|Avada Kedavra}} — Spell from the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series | ||
*{{annotated link|Barbarous name}} | *{{annotated link|Barbarous name}} | ||
*{{annotated link|Hocus-pocus}} | *{{annotated link|Hocus-pocus}} | ||
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==External links== | ==External links== | ||
{{Wiktionary|abracadabra}} | {{Wiktionary|abracadabra}} | ||
{{commons category|Abracadabra}} | |||
* [http://www.skepdic.com/abracadabra.html ''Abracadabra'' ] [[Robert Todd Carroll]], ''[[Skeptic's Dictionary]]'' | * [http://www.skepdic.com/abracadabra.html ''Abracadabra'' ] [[Robert Todd Carroll]], ''[[Skeptic's Dictionary]]'' | ||
*{{Wikisource-inline|list= | *{{Wikisource-inline|list= | ||
Latest revision as of 19:58, 12 November 2025
Template:Short description Script error: No such module "about". Template:Italic title
Abracadabra is a magic word, historically used as an apotropaic incantation on amulets and common today in stage magic. The actual origin is unknown, but one of the first appearances of the word was in a second-century work by Roman physician Serenus Sammonicus.[1]
Etymology
Script error: No such module "Listen". Abracadabra is of unknown origin, and is first attested in a second-century work of Serenus Sammonicus relating to a cure for a fever.[2]
Some conjectural etymologies are:[3] from a phrase in Aramaic that means "I create like the word" (Script error: No such module "Lang".),[4][5] to etymologies that point to similar words in Latin and Greek such as abraxas[6] or to its similarity to the first four letters of the Greek alphabet (alpha-beta-gamma-delta or ΑΒΓΔ).[7] However, "no documentation has been found to support any of the various conjectures".[6]
The historian Don Skemer suggests that it might originate from the Hebrew phrase ha brachah dabarah (name of the blessed), said to be a magical phrase.[8]
The Aramaic linguist Steve Caruso argues that Abracadabra can neither be Aramaic nor Hebrew, and suggests that the popularisation of the mistaken etymology is a result of an extended discussion on an early internet message board, which credits rabbi Lawrence Kushner with publishing a modern etymology.[9][10]
History
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Script error: No such module "anchor".Script error: No such module "anchor".The first known mention of the word was in the second century AD in a book called Script error: No such module "Lang". (sometimes known as Script error: No such module "Lang".) by Serenus Sammonicus,[11] physician to the Roman emperor Caracalla, who in chapter 52 prescribed that malaria sufferers wear an amulet containing Abracadabra written in the form of a triangle.[12][13]
The power of the amulet, he claimed, makes lethal diseases go away. Other Roman emperors, including Geta and Severus Alexander, were followers of the medical teachings of Serenus Sammonicus and may have used the incantation as well.[11]
It was used as a magical formula by the Gnostics of the sect of Basilides in invoking the aid of beneficent spirits against disease and misfortune.[14] It is found on Abraxas stones, which were worn as amulets. Subsequently, its use spread beyond the Gnostics.
To use it, when a person was sick and unhealthy they would wear an amulet around their neck that was made up of a piece of parchment inscribed with a triangular formula derived from this. It was believed that when it was written out this way that it acted like a funnel and drove the sickness out of the body.[15]
A Jewish codex from 16th century Italy titled Script error: No such module "Lang". (The Tree of Knowledge) and described as a collection of magical spells contains the word Abracadabra, referring to an amulet. It was described as a "cure from heavens" for "all sorts of fever[s]", consumption, and fire.[16][17]
The Puritan minister Increase Mather dismissed the word as bereft of power. Daniel Defoe wrote dismissively about Londoners who posted the word on their doorways to ward off sickness during the Great Plague of London.[18]
In the early 1800s, the word was used as an example of what magicians would say.[19] Abracadabra is now more commonly used in the performance of stage magic as a magic word at the culmination of a trick.[20]
Aleister Crowley adapted the word Abracadabra into the word Abrahadabra in The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema.[21][22]
See also
- Template:Annotated link — Spell from the Harry Potter series
- Template:Annotated link
- Template:Annotated link
- Template:Annotated link
- Template:Annotated link
References
External links
Template:Sister project Template:Sister project
Template:Amulets and talismans
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- ↑ Daniel Defoe. A Journal of the Plague Year. London, Dent, 1911 (1722)
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