abracadabran.int.

Etymology: < post-classical Latin abracadabra, a magical word (end of the 4th cent.), further etymology uncertain and disputed (see below). Compare Middle French, French abracadabra instance or utterance of the magical word (1585; the sense ‘obscure or nonsense language, gibberish’ is apparently not paralleled until later: 1949 or earlier), German Abrakadabra (1583 as †abracadabra denoting an instance or utterance of the magical word, 1755 in sense ‘obscure or nonsense language, gibberish’).The etymology of post-classical Latin abracadabra has been the subject of much conjecture; no documentation has been found to support any of the various conjectures which have been put forward. Some have suggested an origin within Latin or Greek, e.g. as an alteration of abecedarius abecedary adj. with insertion of euphonic elements (e.g. -ra- ), others a borrowing from languages as diverse as Thracian (a sparsely attested Indo-European language) and Sumerian. A connection with post-classical Latin abraxas , Hellenistic Greek Ἀβράξας abraxas n. has also frequently been suggested, but the nature of any relationship is unclear. A further large group of etymological suggestions tries to derive the word from Hebrew or Aramaic in various ways, involving, for example, an alteration of an unknown Aramaic name of a demon, or a connection with Hebrew bĕrāḵāh ‘blessing’ and dāḇar ‘to speak’ or dāḇār ‘speech, word’, but again, supporting evidence is lacking, and the use of the magical word in Jewish sources does not seem to be attested before the early Middle Ages.