Abacadabra
Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2025 12:07 am
On the Etymology of "Abacadabra"
By Martin Baasten
https://www.academia.edu/145441953/On_t ... bacadabra_
Previous suggestions for the etymology of "abracadabra" are unconvincing and unsatisfactory. The either do not really explain the phrase as a whole, or are based upon erroneous and non-existing phrases in Hebrew or Aramaic. The present proposal does explain the phrase "abracadabra" as a whole and is free from linguistic anomalies.
(...)
Conclusion (1) The origin of ab(r)acadabra is the motif found in Sefer Yeṣira (‘the Book of Formation’): אב אג אד א... בראabagadabra ‘He created (BRA) (the universe by the letter combinations) AB, AG, AD, A…’ (2) The form αβραγαδαβρα is secondary; the first ρ was added by analogy with other voces magicae in αβρα- and/or due to assonance. (3) The phrase αβραγαδαβρα was Latinized as abracadabra
By Martin Baasten
https://www.academia.edu/145441953/On_t ... bacadabra_
Previous suggestions for the etymology of "abracadabra" are unconvincing and unsatisfactory. The either do not really explain the phrase as a whole, or are based upon erroneous and non-existing phrases in Hebrew or Aramaic. The present proposal does explain the phrase "abracadabra" as a whole and is free from linguistic anomalies.
(...)
Conclusion (1) The origin of ab(r)acadabra is the motif found in Sefer Yeṣira (‘the Book of Formation’): אב אג אד א... בראabagadabra ‘He created (BRA) (the universe by the letter combinations) AB, AG, AD, A…’ (2) The form αβραγαδαβρα is secondary; the first ρ was added by analogy with other voces magicae in αβρα- and/or due to assonance. (3) The phrase αβραγαδαβρα was Latinized as abracadabra