October Novel Prep Challenge

This is so interesting that I looked up Abracadabra out of curiosity. It's thought to have Aramaic roots, and I also wanted to share this little snippet for the benefit of Waltz Invictus who brought up Rowling:

In literature

In the Harry Potter novel series, the incantation Avada Kedavra is known as the Killing Curse. During an audience interview at the Edinburgh Book Festival on 15 April 2004, series author J. K. Rowling had this to say about the fictional Killing Curse's etymology: "Does anyone know where avada kedavra came from? It is an ancient spell in Aramaic, and it is the original of abracadabra, which means 'let the thing be destroyed.' Originally, it was used to cure illness and the 'thing' was the illness, but I decided to make it the 'thing' as in the person standing in front of me. I take a lot of liberties with things like that. I twist them round and make them mine."[11]

(source  )

I have no idea if Rowling was correct, but apparently she used mangled Aramaic as well as mangled Latin.

Cheers,
Michelle