Hi, everyone. And welcome back to酒館. This is yet again, one of your favorite segments【詞源考古研究所】, and in English we call it【 It means what?】 Hi, 安瀾.

Hi, Lulu, hi, everyone.

Always so enthusiastic.

What can I say? I've had quite a few cups of coffee so far.

Great. So in this segment, 安瀾 and I will get to the bottom of some of the everyday expressions and tell you about their interesting origin stories. Can I propose a word or a phrase today?

Yeah, of course.

So far, most of the words and phrases we've talked about are very much everyday expression, things we use every day.Yeah. I wanna give you a fanciful word.

Okay.

我想提一個比較有意思的, I know a lot of people watch like Harry Potter or read Harry Potter.

So this one is slightly related to magic or not slightly, actually related to magic, okay.

When you have some sort of magic spell or whatever, not just in Harry Potter, but in many of these magical moments, people say “abracadabra”好像中文說什么急急如律令那種感覺. Where does it come from? It sounds gibberish, sounds like rubbish word.

Well, kind of it is. Now the word abracadabra has been used as sort of like a magic, incantation. So it's something that we say to create a magic trick.

Incantation is a bit like spell, isn’t it? 就是像咒語那種. You chant together.

Yes, but the thing is this word has been around for thousands and thousands of years.

And let me guess it did not come from English.

No, it's not an English word. Now there are two main ideas of where this word comes from. The first one is it's from Aramaic.

Aramaic叫阿拉米語. Was this an ancient Middle Eastern language?

It was an ancient Middle Eastern language. So Aramaic is the language that Jesus would have spoken. So this was one of the most common Middle Eastern languages in ancient history.

Nowadays, people still speak it, but only a very small group.

So it's a living language.

Barely living.

Okay. So was it actually abracadabra?

No, it was "avra kedabra", which literally means “I will create as I speak” or “it will be created in my words”.

This really sounds like the Harry Potter one. What do they say? They say Avada Kedavra大家都聽過那個 阿瓦達索命咒, “阿瓦達啃大瓜”就是那個索命咒, so they changed it a little bit, they changed it into Avada Kedavra.

Well, pretty much, it could actually be, it's based on the Aramaic.

But the original Aramaic words or incantation simply meant I will create as I speak. It doesn't mean I will kill you.

No. It literally means it will be created in my words. So I say it, and then it will appear or it will be created.

It's a creation spell, like I create in front of me a really gorgeous man.

There we go.

I see Avra Kedabra.

It's a good thing that's already come true.

But let's continue.

Now the other idea is that it comes from Latin, so abracadabra can come from the Latin “ab”, which means “away” and "cadere", which means “to fall” or “vanish”. So sometimes this word is used as like a vanishing spell.

So the two are completely opposite. Yeah. If we believe this came from Aramaic, then it means I create something right in front of my eyes with my words. Yeah. But if we believe it originally came from Latin, then it meant I want something to disappear.

Oh yeah, this is basically a phrase that's used in magic tricks.

Honestly think about all the cartoon, animated film or just stories when they say “abracadabra”, I think it's more the former, they try to make something come true or to appear rather than to vanish.

Oh yeah, but there are lots of magic tricks where the magician is trying to get something to disappear or at least seem like it's disappeared.

I see, but either way, I think this really puts a focus on the power of speech, the power of language.

Oh yeah, this is originally when it was first recorded, it first appeared in writing in the second century AD, and it was used by a Roman philosopher as a remedy for fever.

就是治療發燒的是嗎? Yeah.

You know what I think in Chinese we have the same, I believe we had something called祝由術, which was also like a spell.

For example, if a kid was waking up in the middle of night or had some illnesses and there was one way of just using certain spells you chant it. Yeah, and that will drive away the evil spirits so to speak, and make the kid feel better.

So this is exactly the same in the ancient world in Greece and Rome that they believed in spells, they believed in the power of spells. And to a certain extent we still believe it now, for example, we still believe in curses for example, to a certain extent .

In Chinese we say寧可信其有，不可信其無, it's like why jinx it, right?

Exactly.

If I say 安瀾, I put a curse on you, that would still kind of creep you out.

It would, it would very much.

Even though you would be like that's just Lulu saying some words, but you don't know the power of words, and especially if you think about ancient times people, before they acquired enough knowledge of medical science, people used to think the reason why they get sick or they got sick was because of evil spirits.

Oh yeah.

Or all of these evil supernatural power. So it's basically to expel that, drive it away.

Think of it this way and I think we discussed it in a previous etymology episode, the word disaster which means sort of under a bad star.

Yes, “Dis-aster”. Yes, exactly. So 安瀾, do you believe in magic?

To be honest, not really. I've seen magicians in the past and I think they are excellent. They're really really good at psychology. But to be honest again, with things like black magic, for example, I still wouldn't quite feel comfortable with that.

You wouldn't want to touch it. No.

So only white magic.

But think about it, white magic is basically very much linked with all these mind-fullness, for example, the self affirmation chants. It's still a kind of an incantation almost, it's a chant, it's like, I believe in myself, look at yourself in a mirror. I'm a strong beautiful woman. You know you say it and words do have power.

Oh yeah, but I think if I said that I was a strong beautiful woman, I'm not sure how much power that would have.

Anyhow, so we're gonna wrap up here. Do you believe in magic? Do you believe in 急急如律令or “abracadabra”? Leave us a comment in comment section or put in request for the words and phrases that you want us to talk about in this segment.

So until next time,

We'll see you next time.

Bye.

Bye.