Part 3 -- What's the Magic Word?

Did you know that "abracadabra" and "hocus pocus" had actual meaning? And that they've been around for a really long time? It's true! I'd never given them any thought -- I figured they were just gibberish probably invented relatively recently. Like in the last century or so, then popularized in cartoons, or something. Not so.

"Abracadabra" actually dates back to the Roman Empire! The first recorded use of it is in a medical text from the 2nd Century A.D. (Not C.E. Shut up, y'damn hippie.) It was considered to be a sort of magical catalyst that kicked off a spell or incantation -- the meaning of the word is most likely something to the effect of "I make what I say." A magical QED of sorts.*

We know that Serenus Sammonicus, a Roman physician, ordered a patient to wear an inverted triangular pendant with the word inscribed in it, getting cut off shorter and shorter as it reached the bottom. Sort of like the song "Bingo." Abracadabra is the magic word-o.

"Hocus pocus" also is very old, but it's most probably a pun dating to after the Reformation. It's (probably -- again, the exact origin is a little hazy) a derivation of "Hoc est corpus," or "Here is the body," a Protestant mocking of the Catholic priest mystically transubstantiating bread into Christ's flesh in the Eucharist.

So the next time you feign magic powers and refuse to use these words because they're campy or too obvious (I dunno...someone might actually do this), just remember that they're time-worn.



*QED is the acronym for Quod erat demonstrandum, the Latin translation of a Greek phrase used by Euclid to cap each of his geometric proofs in his "Geometry." I'd look up the actual Greek, but I'm too damned tired. Look it up yourself.