Abracadabra

{{Original research|date=September 2007}}
{{Otherusesabout|an incantational word}}
'''''Abracadabra''''' (sometimes spelled ''Abrakadabra'') is a word used as an [[incantation]].

==History==
The word is now commonly used as an [[incantation]] by [[stage magic]]ians. In ancient times, however, it was taken much more seriously as an incantation to be used as a cure for fevers and inflammations. The first known mention was in the 2nd century A.D. in a poem called ''De Medicina Praecepta'' by [[Serenus Sammonicus]], [[physician]] to the [[Roman emperor]] [[Caracalla]], who prescribed that the sufferer from the disease wear an [[amulet]] containing the word written in the form of an inverted cone:

<center>

A B R A C A D A B R A 
A B R A C A D A B R 
A B R A C A D A B 
A B R A C A D A 
A B R A C A D 
A B R A C A 
A B R A C 
A B R A 
A B R 
A B 
A
</center>

This, he explained, diminishes the hold of the spirit of the disease over the patient. Other [[Roman emperor]]s, including [[Publius Septimius Geta|Geta]] and [[Alexander Severus]], were followers of the medical teachings of Serenus Sammonicus and are likely to have used the incantation as well.

==Etymology==
Theories about the source of the word are:

===''"I create as I speak"''===
A possible source is [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]]: אברא כדברא ''avra kedabra'' which means "Creating as speaking" which is thought to be in reference to [[God]] creating the universe (in some belief systems, [[ex nihilo]]), by speaking (see also [[Fiat Lux]]). An alternative spelling is avda K'Davarah. One may also view it as "I transgress as I speak" in the Aramaic עבריה כדבריה which is phonetically closer. 

However, it seems likely that abracadabra is older and that it derives from one of the Semitic languages, though nobody can say for sure, because there is no written record before Serenus Sammonicus. For what it’s worth, here are some theories (1): 
• It’s from the Aramaic phrase avra kehdabra, meaning “I will create as I speak”. 
• The source is three Hebrew words, ab (father), ben (son), and ruach acadosch (holy spirit). 
• It’s from the Chaldean abbada ke dabra, meaning “perish like the word”. 
• It originated with a Gnostic sect in Alexandria called the Basilidians and was probably based on Abrasax, the name of their supreme deity (Abraxas in Latin sources). 

Fans of the Harry Potter books will know the killing curse, Avada Kedavra, in which J K Rowling seems to have combined the supposed Aramaic source of abracadabra with the Latin cadaver, a dead body(1).

===The curse and the pestilence===
There is the view that Abracadabra derives from the Hebrew, ''ha-brachah'', meaning "the blessing" (used in this sense as a euphemism for "the curse") and ''dabra'', an Aramaic form of the Hebrew word ''dever'', meaning "pestilence." They point to a similar [[Kabbalism|kabbalistic]] cure for blindness, in which the name of [[Shabriri]], the [[demon]] of blindness, is similarly diminished. Other scholars are skeptical of this origin and claim that the idea of diminishing the power of demons was common throughout the ancient world, and that Abracadabra was simply the name of one such demon.

===Other phrases that have been suggested as possible origins===
Abracadabra may have been from: 
• a corruption of the Hebrew ''avar k'davar'' which means roughly "it will be according to what is spoken;" 

• ''abrakha adabra'' - Hebrew for "I shall bless, I shall speak."

• ''abreq ad Habra'' - Arabic meaning "hurl your thunderbolt even unto death."

===Disappear like this word===
Some have argued that the term may come from the [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] אבדא כדברא ''abhadda kedhabhra'', meaning 'disappear like this word'. Rather than being used as a curse, the Aramaic phrase is believed to have been used as a means of treating illness.

===Abraxas===
It has also been claimed that the word comes from [[Abraxas]], a [[Gnostic]] word for God (the source of 365 emanations, apparently the Greek letters for Abraxas add up to 365 when deciphered according to [[numerology|numerological methods]]). It has also been claimed to come from Abracalan (or Aracalan) who is said to have been a [[Syria]]n god.

==Thelema==
{{main|Abrahadabra}}
The occult movement of [[Thelema]] spells the word "[[Abrahadabra]]", and considers it the magical formula of the current [[Aeon]]. The movement's founder, [[Aleister Crowley]], explains in his essay ''Gematria'' that he discovered the word (and his spelling) by [[kabbalah|kabbalistic]] methods. He appears to say that this happened before his January 1901 meeting with [[Oscar Eckenstein]], one of his teachers. (At this meeting, Eckenstein ordered him to abandon [[magick]] for the moment and practice meditation or concentration.) The Word Abrahadabra appears repeatedly in the 1904 invocation of [[Horus]] that led to the founding of [[Thelema]]. (''The Equinox'' I, no. 7. 1912) It also appears in a 1901 diary that Crowley published in ''The Equinox''.

The essay ''Gematria'' gives Hindu, Christian, and "Unsectarian" versions of the problem that Crowley intended this magick word to answer. He also gives a [[kabbalah|kabbalistic]] equivalent for each phrasing, and a brief symbolic answer for each. The unsectarian version reads, "I am the finite square; I wish to be one with the infinite circle." Its equivalent refers to "the Cross of Extension" and "the infinite Rose." Crowley's numerological explanation of ABRAHADABRA focuses mainly on this last formulation and the answer to it.

==Jamrach Holobom, quoted by Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)==

<pre>
By _Abracadabra_ we signify
An infinite number of things.
'Tis the answer to What? and How? and Why?
And Whence? and Whither? -- a word whereby
The Truth (with the comfort it brings)
Is open to all who grope in night,
Crying for Wisdom’s holy light.

Whether the word is a verb or a noun
Is knowledge beyond my reach.
I only know that 'tis handed down.
From sage to sage,
From age to age --
An immortal part of speech!

Of an ancient man the tale is told
That he lived to be ten centuries old,
In a cave on a mountain side.
(True, he finally died.)
The fame of his wisdom filled the land,
For his head was bald, and you'll understand
His beard was long and white
And his eyes uncommonly bright.

Philosophers gathered from far and near
To sit at his feat and hear and hear,
Though he never was heard
To utter a word
But "_Abracadabra, abracadab_,
_Abracada, abracad_,
_Abraca, abrac, abra, ab!_"
'Twas all he had,
'Twas all they wanted to hear, and each
Made copious notes of the mystical speech,
Which they published next --
A trickle of text
In the meadow of commentary.
Mighty big books were these,
In a number, as leaves of trees;
In learning, remarkably -- very!

He’s dead,
As I said,
And the books of the sages have perished,
But his wisdom is sacredly cherished.
In _Abracadabra_ it solemnly rings,
Like an ancient bell that forever swings.
O, I love to hear
That word make clear
Humanity’s General Sense of Things.

</pre>

=="Avada Kedavra" in Harry Potter==
The "[[Unforgivable Curses#Avada Kedavra (The Killing Curse)|Killing Curse]]" in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' stories may have been taken by [[J. K. Rowling]] from an [[Aramaic]] form "avada kedavra" or similar, which roughly means "what I speak is destroyed," influenced by the [[Latin]] word ''cadaver'', meaning "corpse". This form differs from the "I create as I speak" form ("Avara Kedavra") by a single letter in the English transliteration; it is one of the few spells in ''Harry Potter'' not derived entirely from Latin.

=="Abra and Kadabra" in Pokémon==
The two Pokémon [[Abra]] and it's evolution [[Kadabra]] are obviously named after this phrase. They are of the Psychic type, which can do things that seem like magic. Kadabra further evolves into [[Alakazam]], another Pokémon with an incantation for a name.

==References==
<references/>

(1) http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-abr1.htm 

==External links==
* [http://www.skepdic.com/abracadabra.html ''abracadabra''] [[Robert Todd Carroll]], ''[[Skeptic's Dictionary]]''

==See also==
{{Wikisource1911Enc|Abracadabra}}
*[[Hocus Pocus (magic)|Hocus Pocus]]
*[[Presto]]
*[[Unforgivable Curses#Avada Kedavra (The Killing Curse)|Avada Kedavra (Harry Potter)]]
*[[Abra (Pokémon)]]
*[[Kadabra|Kadabra (Pokémon)]]

[[Category:Magic words]]

[[de:Abrakadabra]]
[[es:Abracadabra]]
[[fr:Abracadabra]]
[[gl:Abracadabra]]
[[ko:아바다 케다브라]]
[[it:Abracadabra]]
[[he:אברקדברה]]
[[ka:აბრაკადაბრა]]
[[lt:Abrakadabra]]
[[nl:Abracadabra]]
[[ja:アブラカダブラ]]
[[no:Abrakadabra]]
[[nn:Abrakadabra]]
[[pl:Abrakadabra]]
[[pt:Abracadabra]]
[[ru:Абракадабра]]
[[sq:Abrakadabra]]
[[fi:Abrakadabra (taikasana)]]
[[sv:Abrakadabra]]
[[tr:Abrakadabra]]
[[uk:Абракадабра]]