Recorded in English in the late 1600s, abracadabra is used in incantations, particularly as a magical means of warding off misfortune, harm, or illness, and for some, is used as a nonsense word, implying gibberish in place of supposedly magical words. The idea behind reductive spells is that by making the word shorter so would a pain or illness gradually diminish. Abracadabra is classified as a reductive spell, which means it would have been written out as a complete word on the first line, then with one letter missing on the next, then another letter removed on the following line, and so forth. Its origins are contested as scholars posit that abracadabra emerged from Late Latin or Late Greek, reflecting the recitation of the initial letters of the alphabet ( abecedary) others hypothesize that it could related to the Hebrew Ha brakha dabra, which translates as, “The blessing has spoken.” We do understand it as a word generally meant to invoke magical power.

Perhaps one of the oldest and most recognized magical phrases, abracadabra has been around since the second century BCE and has famously appeared in the Harry Potter series. When you’re ready, you can demonstrate your knowledge of magic words by taking this short quiz! abracadabra If you’re a real “wiz” at card tricks or have a deeper fascination with charms and spells, you might already know the words on this list.

Mystic and magical names