View source for Unsolved:Abracadabra

{{short description|Magic word used by stage magicians}}
{{Italic title}}
[[File:Cluny - Mero - Croix-Talisman motifs magiques basé sur Abracadabra - VIe-VII siècle- Ag niellé.jpg|thumb|A silver talisman from the 6th or 7th century, inscribed with words similar to ''abracadabra'']]
'''''Abracadabra''''' is a magic word, historically used as an [[Unsolved:Incantation|incantation]] on amulets and common today in stage magic.<!-- {{Citation needed|date=December 2013}} - citation provided below -->

== Etymology ==
{{listen |filename=Pl-abrakadabra.ogg |title=Pronunciation |description=Male native of {{wipe|Poland}} pronouncing Abracadabra}}
''Abracadabra'' is of unknown origin, but according to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'', its first known occurrence is in the second-century works of Serenus Sammonicus.<ref name="OED">{{citation|title=Oxford English Dictionary|publisher=[[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]]|year=2009|section=abracadabra}}</ref> 

Several [[Social:Folk etymology|folk etymologies]] are associated with the word:<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=[[Organization:Oxford University Press|Oxford University Press]]|date=December 30, 2016|work=Oxford Dictionaries}}</ref> from phrases in [[Social:Hebrew language|Hebrew]] that mean "I will create as I speak",<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> or Aramaic "I create like the word" (אברא כדברא),<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 folk etymologies that point to similar words in Latin and Greek such as [[Religion:Abraxas|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> According to the ''OED Online'', "no documentation has been found to support any of the various conjectures."<ref name="OEDOnline" />

==History==
[[File:Abracadabra triangle (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Abracadabra written in a triangular form as represented in ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica|Encyclopædia Britannica]]'']] 
{{Anchor|Amulet}}{{Anchor|Triangle}}The first known mention of the word was in the second century AD in a book called ''Liber Medicinalis'' (sometimes known as ''De Medicina Praecepta Saluberrima'') by Serenus Sammonicus,<ref name="Vollmer">{{cite book|last=Sammonicus|first=Quintus Serenus |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}}</ref> [[Medicine:Physician|physician]] to the [[Social:Roman emperor|Roman emperor]] Caracalla, who in chapter 52 prescribed that [[Medicine:Malaria|malaria]] sufferers wear an amulet containing the word written in the form of a triangle.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>[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 }}</ref>

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.<ref name="Vollmer" />

It was used as a [[Unsolved:Magical formula|magical formula]] by the [[Philosophy:Gnosticism|Gnostics]] of the [[Religion:Basilideans|sect of Basilides]] in invoking the aid of beneficent spirits against disease and misfortune.<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Abracadabra}}</ref> It is found on [[Religion:Abraxas|Abraxas]] stones, which were worn as amulets. Subsequently, its use spread beyond the Gnostics.

The Puritan minister Increase Mather dismissed the word as bereft of power. Daniel Defoe also wrote dismissively about Londoners who posted the word on their doorways to ward off sickness during the Great Plague of London.<ref>Daniel Defoe. [https://archive.org/stream/journalofplagu00defo#page/38/mode/2up ''A Journal of the Plague Year'']. London, Dent, 1911 (1722)</ref>

The religion of [[Philosophy:Thelema|Thelema]] spells the word 'Abrahadabra', and considers it the magical formula of the current [[Physics:Aeon (Thelema)|Aeon]]. The religion's founder, [[Biography:Aleister Crowley|Aleister Crowley]], explains in his essay ''Gematria'' that he discovered the word (and his spelling) by [[Religion:Hermetic Qabalah|qabalistic]] methods. The word 'Abrahadabra' also appears repeatedly in the 1904 invocation of [[Religion:Horus|Horus]] that led to the founding of Thelema. (''The Equinox'' I, no. 7. 1912) 

''Abracadabra'' is now more commonly used in the performance of stage magic as a magic word at the culmination of a trick.<ref name="randi-1995">{{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|}}</ref>

==See also==
*{{annotated link|Unsolved:Sator Square}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.skepdic.com/abracadabra.html ''Abracadabra'' ] [[Biography:Robert Todd Carroll|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 Collier's|wstitle=Abracadabra |short=x |noicon=x}}

}}
[[Category:Incantation]]

{{Sourceattribution|Abracadabra}}