Abracadabra is a magic word, historically used as an apotropaic incantation on amulets and common today in stage magic. It is of unknown origin.
The Devanagari numerals are the symbols used to write numbers in the Devanagari script, predominantly used for northern Indian languages. They are used to write decimal numbers, instead of the Western Arabic numerals.
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. North is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
A curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, "curse" may refer to such a wish or pronouncement made effective by a supernatural or spiritual power, such as a god or gods, a spirit, or a natural force, or else as a kind of spell by magic or witchcraft; in the latter sense, a curse can also be called a hex or a jinx. In many belief systems, the curse itself is considered to have some causative force in the result. To reverse or eliminate a curse is sometimes called "removal" or "breaking", as the spell has to be dispelled, and often requires elaborate rituals or prayers.
The wrynecks are a small but distinctive group of small Old World woodpeckers. Jynx is from the Ancient Greek iunx, the Eurasian wryneck.
The Eurasian wryneck or northern wryneck is a species of wryneck in the woodpecker family. They mainly breed in temperate regions of Europe and Asia. Most populations are migratory, wintering in tropical Africa and in southern Asia from Iran to the Indian subcontinent, but some are resident in northwestern Africa. It is a bird of open countryside, woodland and orchards.
Sharīf, also spelled shareef or sherif, feminine sharīfa (شريفة), plural ashrāf (أشراف), shurafāʾ (شرفاء), or shurfāʾ, is a title used to designate a person descended, or claiming to be descended, from the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It may be used in three senses:
- In the broadest sense, it refers to any descendant of Muhammad's great-grandfather Hashim, including all descendants of Muhammad's paternal uncles Abu Talib and al-Abbas.
- More often, it refers to a descendant of Ali, a son of Abu Talib and a paternal cousin of Muhammad, especially but not exclusively through Ali's marriage with Muhammad's daughter Fatima. In the sense of descendants of Fatima and Ali, the term effectively refers to all descendants of Muhammad.
- In the narrowest sense, it refers only to someone who descends from Fatima and Ali's eldest son Hasan. In this limited context, it is contrasted with the term sayyid ('lord', 'master', plural sāda,, which then refers only to the descendants of Hasan's younger brother Husayn.
In Greek mythology, Iynx was an Arcadian Oread nymph; a daughter of the god Pan and the nymph Echo. In popular myth, she used an enchantment to cast a spell on Zeus, which caused him to fall in love with Io. In consequence of this, Hera metamorphosed her into the bird called iynx.
Etymology is the study of the origin and evolution of words, including their constituent units of sound and of meaning, across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. Most directly tied to historical linguistics, philology, and semiotics, it additionally draws upon comparative semantics, morphology, pragmatics, and phonetics in order to attempt a comprehensive and chronological catalogue of all meanings and changes that a word carries throughout its history. The origin of any particular word is also known as its etymology.
Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological)reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one through popular usage. The form or the meaning of an archaic, foreign, or otherwise unfamiliar word is reinterpreted as resembling more familiar words or morphemes.
A jinx is a condition of bad luck possibly by way of a curse.
Juju or ju-ju is a spiritual belief system incorporating objects, such as amulets, and spells used in religious practice in West Africa by the people of Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, and Cameroon. The term has been applied to traditional Western African religions, incorporating objects such as amulets, and spells used in spiritual practices, and blood sacrifices. This is under the belief that two vessels that have been in close physical contact with each other have similar spiritual properties and in turn, makes the objects possible to manipulate.
Diaper is a damask cloth with small geometrical patterns such as bird's eye or diamond shapes. Terms such as “bird’s eye” or “pheasant’s eye” refer to the size of the diamond in the design. Diaper has been used as a tablecloth.
