Abracadabra
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Abracadabra is a word used as an incantation.
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[edit] History
The term originated from the Aramaic. The original Aramaic phrase was used with a Hebrew prefix Alef rather than the latter version with an Ayin. The difference was that the original meaning was "I will create, as I say," while the latter was "What was said has been done." The original Aramaic was either עַבְדָא כְּדַברָא, avda kedavra, which means, "what was said has been done," or עברא כדברא, avra kedavra, which means "what was said has come to pass" or "caused to perish like the word." Over time, it was corrupted to its current pronunciation with the replacement of both "v" sounds with "b" sounds: b and v can be interchangeable in Aramaic.
The word is now commonly used as an incantation by stage magicians and their imitators. 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 AD 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:[1]
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
This, he explained, diminishes the hold over the patient of the spirit of the disease. Other Roman emperors, including Geta and Alexander Severus, were followers of the medical teachings of Serenus Sammonicus and are likely to have used the incantation as well.
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