abracadabra

{{listen |filename=Pl-abrakadabra.ogg |title=Pronunciation |description=Male native of Poland pronouncing Abracadabra}}

Abracadabra is of unknown origin, and is first attested in a second-century work of Serenus Sammonicus relating to a cure for a fever.{{citation|title=Oxford English Dictionary|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|section=abracadabra}}

Some conjectural etymologies are:{{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}} from phrases in Hebrew that mean "I will create as I speak",{{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}} or Aramaic "I create like the word" ({{lang|arc|אברא כדברא}}),{{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}} to etymologies that point to similar words in Latin and Greek such as abraxas{{citation|url=http://oed.com/view/Entry/539|section=abracadabra|title=Oxford English Dictionary Online|access-date=September 1, 2017}} or to its similarity to the first four letters of the Greek alphabet (alpha-beta-gamma-delta or ΑΒΓΔ).{{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}} However, "no documentation has been found to support any of the various conjectures".

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.{{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.}}

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.{{Cite web |last=Caruso |first=Steve |date=29 January 2014 | title=Abracadabra is NOT Aramaic |url=http://aramaicnt.org/2014/01/29/abracadabra-is-not-aramaic/ }}{{Cite web |last=The Straight Dope Message Board |date=1 March 1999 |title=Abracadabra |url=https://boards.straightdope.com/t/abracadabra/144 }}

File:Abracadabra triangle (cropped).jpg]]

{{Anchor|Amulet}}{{Anchor|Triangle}}The first known mention of the word was in the second century AD in a book called {{lang|la|Liber Medicinalis}} (sometimes known as {{lang|la|De Medicina Praecepta Saluberrima}}) by Serenus Sammonicus,{{cite book|last=Sammonicus|first=Quintus Serenus |author-link=Serenus Sammonicus|title=Quinti Sereni Samonici De medicina praecepta salvberrima|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y5FOAAAAYAAJ|year=1786|publisher=In bibliopolio I.G. Mülleriano|page=4}} 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.{{cite news |last1=Shah |first1=Sonia |title=The Tenacious Buzz of Malaria |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704111704575354911834340450 |access-date=17 June 2018 |work=Wall Street Journal |date=10 July 2010}}[http://www.bartleby.com/61/21/A0022100.html Bartleby] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122135703/http://www.bartleby.com/61/21/A0022100.html |date=November 22, 2008 }}

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.

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.{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Abracadabra}} 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.{{Cite web |last=Bane |first=Theresa |title=ENCYCLOPEDIA OF DEMONS IN WORLD RELIGIONS AND CULTURES |url=https://archive.org/details/BaneTheresaEncyclopediaOfDemonsInWorldReligionsAndCultures}}

A Jewish codex from 16th century Italy titled {{lang|he|Ets ha-Da’at}} (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.{{Cite web |last=Buda |first=Zsófi |date=August 19, 2020 |title=The Tree of Knowledge: magic spells from a Jewish potion book |url=https://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-african/2020/08/the-tree-of-knowledge.html |access-date=March 2, 2024 |website=British Library Asian and African studies blog}}{{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 |work=National Geographic |language=en |quote=A 16th century Jewish manuscript from Italy records a version of the abracadabra spell for an amulet to prevent fever}}

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.Daniel Defoe. [https://archive.org/stream/journalofplagu00defo#page/38/mode/2up A Journal of the Plague Year]. London, Dent, 1911 (1722)

In the early 1800s, the word was used as an example of what magicians would say.{{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}} Abracadabra is now more commonly used in the performance of stage magic as a magic word at the culmination of a trick.{{Cite book |last=Randi |first=James |title=An encyclopedia of claims, frauds, and hoaxes of the occult and supernatural: decidedly sceptical definitions of alternative realities |date=1995 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |isbn=978-0-312-15119-5 |location=New York, NY|author-link=James Randi}}

Aleister Crowley adapted the word Abracadabra into the word Abrahadabra in The Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema. {{cite book |last=Sutin |first=Lawrence |title=Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley |url=https://archive.org/details/dowhatthouwiltli0000suti |url-access=registration |publisher=Macmillan |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-312-25243-4}}{{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=But the word seems to have lost its usefulness as a remedy, and in the early 1800s it appeared in a stage play written by William Thomas Moncrieff, as an example of a word magicians would utter. Its only notable reference in the 20th century may be in the Thelema religion founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley. The occultist often used the word “abrahadabra” in his 1904 Liber Al Vel Legis (“Book of the Law,”) saying it was the name of a new age of humanity; and he claimed to have derived it from the numerology system known as Hermetic Qabalah, which induced him to swap out the C of abracadabra for an H.}}

• {{annotated link|Avada kedavra}} — Spell from the Harry Potter series
• {{annotated link|Barbarous name}}
• {{annotated link|Hocus-pocus}}
• {{annotated link|Open sesame}}
• {{annotated link|Sator Square}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Wiktionary|abracadabra}}

• [http://www.skepdic.com/abracadabra.html Abracadabra ] Robert Todd Carroll, Skeptic's Dictionary
• {{Wikisource-inline|list=
• {{Cite EB9|wstitle=Abracadabra|volume=1 |short=x |noicon=x}}
• {{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Abracadabra |short=x |noicon=x}}
• {{Cite EB1911 |wstitle= Abracadabra |volume= 1 |page=69 |short=1}}
• {{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Abracadabra |short=x |noicon=x}}

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{{Amulets and talismans}}

Category:Amulets

Category:Magic words

Category:Incantation

Category:Superstitions of Europe

Category:Macaronic language

Category:Culture of ancient Rome