A Instead of using numbers to describe the . . . marks on [an English] ruler, let's call the shortest lengths "a," the next longest "b," then "c," and so on. The pattern then becomes . . . "Abacada-Dabacaba!" This word sounds very much like the magician's phrase "abracadabra," a very apt resemblance given the seemingly magical properties of this pattern. To understand the pattern a little better and see how to continue it, let's see how this pattern grows. Start with an "a." This is the first step, the "tree trunk" if you like: 1. a To grow the pattern, add the next letter in the alphabet and then repeat everything that has gone before (which is just the letter "a" in this case.) The next step, then, is "aba," which is like a trunk ("b") with two branches ("a"). . aba Continue by adding the next letter, "c," and repeating the "aba." . abacaba The fourth step adds the letter "d" and repeats the pattern: abacabada bacaba! The next few steps are shown: 4. abacabadabacaba . abacabadabacabaeabacabadabacaba . abacabadabacabaeabacabadabacabafabacabadabacabaeabacabadabacaba It's fun to see how much you can say aloud. How long would it take to say the word all the way to "z"?7 Facts: While abracadabra is historically a "shrinking word" (see the entry for abracadabra), we have seen in the above quotation that Abacaba-Dabacaba is a growing word. In music, the alternating pattern displayed in the letters of abacaba is called a "sonata-rondo" -- "'A' stands for the refrain, and the remaining letters, for couplets of differing material."8 This pattern is also called "chiastic," named after the X-shaped Greek letter chi, as its form is "symmetrically organized around a central axis."9 7 "Abacada-Dabacaba!" (2005) 8 William Earl Caplin, Classical Form (1998) 9 Calvin R Stapert, My Only Comfort (2000)