The ten entries listed here are all considered magic words either in the sense of a magician’s performance or trick, like HOCUS-POCUS and ALAKAZAM, or else were believed at some time to have genuine magical properties, like ABRACADABRA and ABRAXAS. Many words like these date back many thousands of years, with mystical and protective powers often said to be instilled in words and phrases that exhibit some unusual characteristic. One of the most famous of all such phrases is the so-called Sator Square, a five-by-five square of letters containing the Latin palindrome sator arepo tenet opera rotas arranged in such a way so that the same phrase reads up and down the columns as well as along the rows. Although the phrase itself is all but untranslatable – arepo is found nowhere else in all existing Latin texts and its meaning is open to considerable debate – its unusual linguistic properties seem to have made it a popular slogan in Roman times. It has been discovered inscribed on stones located as far apart as Britain, the ancient Roman border city of Dura-Europos in Syria and the ruins of Pompeii.
Long associated with magic and conjuring, in its earliest appearance in written language abracadabra was literally considered a ‘magic word’ believed to have special healing powers, as outlined in a third-century medical textbook, De medicina praecepta, by the Roman scholar Serenus Sammonicus. In the work, which comprises more than 1,500 lines of hexametric verse, Sammonicus lists a number of ancient cures and treatments, and explains that in order to cure a malarial fever a patient should be made to wear an amulet around their neck with ABRACADABRA written atop it, then ABRACADABR written below that, then ABRACADAB, ABRACADA, and so on with one letter clipped from the end of the word on each successive line until just A is left at the bottom, forming an upside-down triangle of letters. As Sammonicus eventually explains, ‘Tie this about the neck with flaxen string, / Mighty the good ’twill to the patient bring.’ Quite how abracadabra is invested with magic powers, and where the term itself comes from, is unclear – a connection to the Latin abecadarius, ‘alphabetical order’, has been suggested – but on its first appearance in English in the mid-1500s the word was similarly considered to have some manner of magical powers, which eventually led to its use in the early nineteenth century as a conjuror’s exclamation.
The ancient word abraxas was historically used both as a magical spell in its own right and as the name of a talisman on to which the word abraxas would be written or carved for good luck. Borrowed into English from French in the early 1700s, the word and its apparent magical powers derive from the beliefs of a second-century Gnostic sect known as the Basilideans, who in turn adopted the word from Ancient Greek as the name of a deity they believed was in command of the 365 heavens. Whether the Greeks too thought the word had supernatural powers is plausible but uncertain, however it has been suggested that the word’s seven letters were perhaps meant to represent the seven planets known since antiquity, whilst in isopsephy – the Ancient Greek practice of assigning numerical values to the alphabet – the letters of abraxas notably total 365: A (alpha, 1) + B (beta, 2) + R (rho, 100) + A (1) + X (xi, 60) + A (1) + S (sigma, 200) = 365.
The word alakazam dates from the early 1900s in English and, as a magician’s exclamation, is typically used to bring attention to the climax of a trick or, more generally, to any sudden change or action. Although popular folk etymology claims that the word is somehow derived from the Arabic al qasam, meaning ‘the oath’, in fact the true origin of alakazam is considered a mystery. It could even be an arbitrary creation coined simply to sound exotic or enigmatic.
The word hocus-pocus dates back as far as the seventeenth century in English when it was variously used as a general name for a conjuror or juggler, as another name for a trick or sleight of hand and as the words of some fantastical magic spell or charm. This latter meaning appears to be the earliest of the three as the term was likely coined as some kind of faux Latin incantation by ancient conjurors and magicians, but the precise origins of the word remain unclear. If it is not merely some random formation, hocus-pocus could be derived from the name of Ochus Bochus, a forest-dwelling demon in Norse legend; the equally nonsensical faux-Latin phrase hax pax max Deus adimax, also used by magicians; or, perhaps most likely of all, a corruption of the Latin Hoc est corpus meum, ‘this is my body’, words used in the Catholic Eucharist.
First described in English in the early nineteenth century, karakia are Maori prayer-like incantations, usually recited in a rapid monotone, that were used in practically all aspects of Maori life. Dozens of different types of karakia exist, from those used by Maori priests to communicate with the gods to those used in traditional Maori medicine and makutu, sorcery or witchcraft. Individual karakia included those used before battles, as greetings in ceremonies, as love charms, as aids to childbirth, to help ward off bad luck, to wish for fair weather, to help cleanse the homes of the deceased and even to help mend broken bones.
Derived from an old-fashioned French phrase once much used by jugglers and as a magic word by conjurors and tricksters, passe-passe is an obscure term first recorded in English in the seventeenth century as a synonym for sleight of hand or trickery, or for any skilful manipulation or movement. Also known as a tour de passe-passe (a French phrase for a conjuror’s trick), the word is derived from a quirky reduplication of the French verb passer, meaning ‘to pass’.
Often used as a musical direction, presto is an Italian word for ‘quickly’ or ‘hurriedly’ that has been used since the late sixteenth century in English as an expression or exclamation accompanying any sudden movement. In the early eighteenth century, magicians and conjurers picked up the term – often as part of the phrase hey presto or hi presto – as an expression emphasizing the climax of a trick, whilst in the nineteenth century presto became a verb in its own right, meaning to ‘move’ or ‘transform’ as if by magic.
Quite why the treasure-filled cave in the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves should be opened with the magic words open sesame is unknown, although it has been suggested that the words are meant to imply that the door would have split open like the shell of a crushed sesame seed. Whatever the meaning behind it, so familiar is the story of Ali Baba that the phrase open sesame has since entered into everyday use in English as an expression, often used humorously, to accompany something opened with a flourish. Since the nineteenth century, meanwhile, sesame has be used figuratively in English as another name for any password used to gain access (or attempt to gain access) to something prohibited or closed.
Shazam was first attested in English in a Captain Marvel comic strip dating from February 1940. Although it is likely that the term was already being used by stage magicians and conjurors at the time, this first written record of shazam nonetheless offers a neat explanation of its origin: as described in Whiz Comics #2, the orphan Billy Batson encounters a dying wizard named Shazam, who offers the boy the opportunity to become his new champion. Billy accepts, and the wizard asks him to say his name, ‘Shazam!’ ‘As Billy speaks the magic word,’ the story continues, ‘he becomes Captain Marvel’, and is now is able to call upon the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles and the speed of Mercury.
The word tetragrammaton, literally meaning a ‘word of four letters’ in Greek, has been used since the fifteenth century in English to refer to YHWH, the approximate English equivalent of the four Hebrew letters yodh, he, waw and he, which in ancient Hebrew biblical texts dating back as far as the ninth century BC was used as the proper name of the God of Israel. As biblical Hebrew was written using only consonants, however, precisely what the letters YHWH was intended to spell out is unknown and some traditions have since proposed that the actual name of God is unpronounceable. Nevertheless, in the Middle Ages, some sorcerers and magicians imagined that the true name of God, if it ever were to be known, would potentially be the most powerful magic word ever known and so used various approximations of the tetragrammaton in their spells. By the seventeenth century, the name tetragrammaton came to be used more generally to describe any magical symbol or charm consisting of four letters.