MAGIC WORDS Meanings: The virtues of Abracadabra are well known; though the meaning of the word has puzzled some of the best critics of the last age. -- Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of an Atom (1748) • A (the letter) "By the father of physic, thought I, this study of medicine is not the pleasant task I anticipated -- rather arduous in the long run for the stomach, I should judge, to swallow and digest all the medicines, from Abracadabra to Zinzibar." -- Henry Clay Lewis, The Swamp Doctor's Adventures (1858) • Alphabet "'Abra cadabra,' that famous saying that everyone learned, is actually a very good ancient magical formula. It just takes the alphabet, supplies some extra vowel sounds, and you turn it into a very spooky sounding word, at least from a Greek perspective." -- L. Michael White, "Magic, Miracles, and the Gospel" (1998) • Antiquated knowledge or wisdom "On the blackboard the futile abracadabra which the future citizens of the republic would have to spend their lives forgetting." -- Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer (1961) • Assyrian deity "Today we know that Abracadabra was the supreme deity of the Assyrians." -- H.E. Dudeney, The Canterbury Puzzles (1907) • Changing or transforming; the cause of change "[S]ort out the jigsaw pieces of problems, then abracadabra them into brilliant solutions." -- Linda Goodman, Linda Goodman's Star Signs (1988) "His voice was quiet, like a hypnotist's: 'Everything in my life changes now.' Abracadabra. Madeline silently repeated his incantation, also wishing that everything in his life would change for him." -- Valerie Ann Leff, Better Homes and Husbands (2004) • Creating "There was magic in sketching. She heard Joel at the door, turned around, and said, Abracadabra, I create as I sketch." -- Pearl Abraham, The Seventh Beggar (2005) • Cryptic language "[T]he facts tumbling out of the coding machines in Navy abracadabra." -- Herman Wouk, War and Remembrance (2002) "He saw -- waking or dream, he still couldn't say -- a ghost mumbling all sorts of Biblical abracadabra in a dead tongue, Chaldean perhaps or Hittite." -- Amos Oz, A Perfect Peace (199 ) • Devil's name "'There, you see? The devil's name, Abracadabra!' He frowned for a few seconds. 'The writer claims Abracadabra can be raised to this world by in voking his name above the Grail.'" -- Bernard Cornwell, Vagabond (200 )