Oedipus: Your infantile riddles! Your damned abracadabra!
SYLLABICATION: ab·ra·ca·dab·ra
NOUN: 1. A magical charm or incantation having the power to ward off disease or disaster. 2. Foolish or unintelligible talk.
ETYMOLOGY: Late Latin, magical formula.
WORD HISTORY: “Abracadabra,” says the magician, unaware that at one time the thing to do with the word was wear it, not say it. Abracadabra was a magic word, the letters of which were arranged in an inverted pyramid and worn as an amulet around the neck to protect the wearer against disease or trouble. One fewer letter appeared in each line of the pyramid, until only a remained to form the vertex of the triangle. As the letters disappeared, so supposedly did the disease or trouble. While magicians still use abracadabra in their performances, the word itself has acquired another sense, “foolish or unintelligible talk.”
2 comments:
Fascinating--and only you would think of looking up that particular word and researching both its history and use in our play. And I assume that Oedipus is using it in the second sense. But I didn't know about its use as a charm to prevent disaster (exactly what Oedipus needs but doesn't realize).
I had to stop and research the word when I stumbled upon it in the text. I'm amazed that the word "abracadabra" is still being used over 2,000 years after Sophocles' play!
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