incantation

English

Alternative forms

• encantation

Etymology

From Old French incantation, from Latin incantatio. More at enchant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /inkænˈteɪʃən/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

incantation (plural incantations)

1. The act or process of using formulas and/or usually rhyming words, sung or spoken, with occult ceremonies, for the purpose of raising spirits, producing enchantment, or creating other magical results.
   • 2008, “Red Letter Year”, in Red Letter Year‎^[1], performed by Ani Difranco:

     new years eve we dropped mushrooms / and danced around the house / making music with everything that we found / incantation replaced resolution

2. A formula of words used as above.
3. (computing, slang) Any esoteric command or procedure.
   • 1998, John Purcell, ‎Robert Kiesling, Linux: The Complete Reference: Book 1 (page 412)

     The appropriate incantation of route is shown below; the gw keyword tells it that the next argument denotes a gateway.

   • 2005, Kyle Rankin, Linux Multimedia Hacks: Tips & Tools for Taming Images, Audio, and Video:

     There's more than one command incantation to create an AVI. It's all a question of experimenting with the different audio and video codecs.

   • 2017, James Pogran, Learning PowerShell DSC (page 11)

     Servers move from being special snowflakes to being disposable numbers on a list that can be created and destroyed without requiring someone to remember the specific incantation to make it work.

Related terms

• incanter

► English terms derived from the PIE root *keh₂n-‎ (0 c, 16 e)

Translations

process

• Bulgarian: заклинание (bg) n (zaklinanie)
• Finnish: loitsinta
• French: incantation (fr) f
• Greek: επωδή (el) f (epodí)

  Ancient: ἐπῳδή f (epōidḗ)

• Latin: incantātiō f, carmen (la) n
• Maori: mata (mi), karakia
• Romanian: descântare f
• Russian: чароде́йство (ru) n (čarodéjstvo)
• Swedish: besvärjelse (sv) c

formula

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 咒語 (zh), 咒语 (zh) (zhòuyǔ), 咒文 (zh) (zhòuwén)

• Classical Nahuatl: tlācatecolōtlahtōlli
• Dutch: bezwering (nl) f, spreuk (nl) f
• Finnish: loitsu (fi)
• French: incantation (fr) f
• German: Beschwörung (de) f
• Greek: επωδή (el) f (epodí), (colloquial) ξόρκι (el) n (xórki)

  Ancient: ἐπῳδή f (epōidḗ)

• Japanese: 呪い (ja) (のろい, noroi), 呪文 (じゅもん, jumon)
• Korean: 주문 (ko) (jumun)
• Latin: incantamentum n, carmen (la) n
• Maori: ihi, tapatapa
• Portuguese: feitiço (pt) m
• Romanian: incantație (ro) f, descântec (ro) n
• Russian: заклина́ние (ru) n (zaklinánije), загово́р (ru) m (zagovór)
• Swedish: besvärjelse (sv) c

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin incantātiō. Synchronically analysable as incanter +‎ -ation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.kɑ̃.ta.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

incantation f (plural incantations)

1. incantation

Related terms

• enchanter

Further reading

• “incantation” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).