Magicians' words

[Baker, John]

I assume you are aware that Shazam is not a traditional magicians' incantatory phrase at all, but instead was introduced in Whiz Comics in 1940 as both the name of an ancient wizard and the exclamation by which Billy Batson transformed himself into Captain Marvel.  The name is an acronym for Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury.
 
John Baker
 

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Michael Quinion 
	Sent: Mon 4/26/2004 3:57 PM 
	To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
	Cc: 
	Subject: Magicians' words
	
	

	Can anyone help me out, off list for preference, with more examples 
	of traditional magicians' incantatory phrases, of the "by jingo", 
	"hey presto", "presto chango", "abracadabra", "shazam", "alakazam" 
	type? I am sure there are more in widespread use, but my mind's gone 
	blank and a deadline approaches! 

	-- 
	Michael Quinion 
	Editor, World Wide Words 
	E-mail: <TheEditor at worldwidewords.org> 
	Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>