Talk:abracadabra

Etymology

I read in the book "Buzz Cut" by James Hall (Mandarin Paperbacks, 1997) the following passage: ' "Abracadabra," the man said. "It's from the Hebrew ab, which means father, and ben, which is son, and ruach acadash, which is the holy spirit. [...]" ' (Page 54)

Can't find anything anywhere to support this, but would suppose an international author and publishing house would have checked this first, as the character is a supposed etymology freak. Anybody able to confirm this etymological theory? — This unsigned comment was added by 41.242.244.137 (talk) at 06:17, 17 June 2011‎.

---

OED is skeptical about our etymology; they say "no documentation has been found to support any of the various conjectures which have been put forward" and toss around Latin, Greek, Sumerian, Thracian, Hebrew and Aramaic conjectures, though not specifically mentioning any of ours.--Prosfilaes 02:53, 25 July 2011 (UTC)

Yes, it means: The Father (Ab), The Son (Ben) and The Holy Ghost (Ruach Acadash) > A-B-R-ACAD > A-B-R-ACAD-AB-R-ACAD-AB-R-ACAD > ABRACADABRA Böri (talk) 06:17, 8 September 2021 (UTC)

A source would be nice. Again, the OED shrugs, so we should have have good evidence to be definitive. Certainly that suggestion looks a post-hoc rationalization, instead of the real answer.--Prosfilaes (talk) 04:14, 9 September 2021 (UTC)

---

"The word abracadabra closely translates to I Create As I Speak, in Aramaic. Abra means I will create and cadabra means as was spoken." Quoted from one website to another. I'm not scholar in Hebrew, but I know that "A" stands for the letter aleph, the mark of future tense first person ("I will"); bar stands for to create (Bereshith bara Elohim, "In the beginning God created"); k- stands for kmo (as, like); dabar is "word" and "thing", so perhaps in Aramaic adabra means "I will say", or maybe it be ka-dabra, "as was said".--Manfariel (talk) 00:21, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

I think I understand that in Hebrew "I will create as I speak" (take heed that classical Hebrew has not tense conjugation, but aspect conjugation, say, a conjugation for completed action and other for not completed action, so the same word means "I speak (I am speaking)", "I was speaking" and "I will be speaking", and other word means "I spoke" and "I will have spoken") would be rendered ʔevrāh kaʔdabēr, abbreviated from ʔevrāh kmo ʔӑdabēr. I would thank if some scholar in Hebrew could give a word on this. I am not learned in Aramaic. Manfariel (talk) 23:35, 2 November 2023 (UTC)