Subject: Roots of 'Avada Kevadra' (Was: Vanquishing Voldemort)

[Amey Chinchorkar]

No: HPFGUIDX 106647

>> Now Aggie:
>> On a side line, does anyone else think that 'Avada Kedavra' is 
>> JKR's 'version' of Abracadabra?  It's sounds remarkably like it to >> me 
>> and I find that quite an eerie thought!!!


Amey:

ABRACADABRA
[A] Let me wave my wand ... It’s ancient, first mentioned in a poem by Quintus Serenus Sammonicus in the second century AD. It is believed to have come into English via French from a Greek word abrasadabra (the change from s to c seems to have been through a confused transliteration of the Greek). It originated as a secret and mystical word with a Gnostic sect in Alexandria called the Basilidians (named after their founder Basilides of Egypt). It was probably based on Abrasax, the name of their supreme deity (Abraxas in Latin sources), but is sometimes said to have been constructed from the initial letters of three Hebrew Words: Ab, the father, Ben, the son, and Acadsch, the holy spirit. It was used as a charm, written in the shape of a triangle on a piece of parchment worn round the neck, and was believed to have the power to cure toothaches, malaria and other scourges. And Abraxas itself was said to have magical powers of its own, as a word that represented the number of days in the year, 365. This was derived by adding up the numerical values of its seven Greek letters by a process called gematria. For this reason, it was often engraved on amulets and precious stones.
<http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-abr1.htm>

"Killing Curse" 

Aramaic: "adhadda kedhabhra" - "let the thing be destroyed". 
NOTE: Abracadabra is a cabbalistic charm in Judaic mythology that is supposed to bring healing powers. One of its sources is believed to be from Aramaic avada kedavra, another is the Phoenician alphabet (a-bra-ca-dabra).
<http://www.hp-lexicon.org/magic/spells_a.html#avada kedavra>


Amey



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