MAGIC WORDS
of old stories, weaving them with pieces of songs, filling in the many gaps
with her own made-up words that approximate the sounds of Mulla's Old
Country tongue. Lily converses fluently in the made-up language, unaware
which words are authentic, which invented, which hybrid. The meaning
resides in the music and the privacy of their magic carpet bed. Arabian
Nights." -- Ann-Marie MacDonald, Fall On Your Knees (1996)
Intuition
In Literature:
• "[H]e introduced me to my first real magic word -- and it wasn't Abracadabra
or Hocus Pocus! 'Intuition,' Doc said, portentously. 'The most magical
word of all. The source of all real magic.'" -- Craig Karges, The Wizard's
Legacy: A Tale of Real Magic (2002)
Inuck-Ch-Uck
Facts: This is a magic word of transformation spoken by the character
Apache Chief in the television series The All-New Super Friends Hour (1977).
Ipitty Bipitty
(see also ibbity bibbity)
Facts: These are magic words from the Bewitched television series. They
began a spell for manifesting a Caesar salad: "Ippity bipitty salad green, oil,
vinegar, chi-chi-bean, I call on Caesar's eternal soul, here and now to fill this
bowl."
Ipswobego
Common Magician's Applications: Professional magician John Mulholland
suggests that one's patter "may be far-fetched but must sound
reasonable. As an example, it is permissible to claim that the magic word
'Ipswobego' will cause an object to disappear but in the next trick, where
something quite different occurs, it is well to devise another magic word.
The audience will accept, while realizing it is silly, that a magic word caused
something to happen. They will not accept, because it becomes too absurdly
silly, that the same word will cause something else to happen."9
9
Mulholland's Book of Magic (196 )