Learn English – Did ‘alakazam’ magically appear out of the thin air

catch-phrasesetymologyorigin-unknownslang

I doubt it. But when did alakazam enter English, where did it come from, and who first used it?

I vaguely recall the TV magic show The Magic Land of Allakazam (1960–1964) from my Texas childhood, and I’ve always assumed that the incantation “alakazam” (like “abracadabra”) was much older than that. A Google Books search for alakazam, however, turns up only a handful of matches from before the 1950s, and none earlier than 1919 (in The American Lumberman).

A query about abracadabra and alakazam posted on Reddit’s AskHistorians page (not by me) yielded a fair amount of information on the former but very little on the latter. A poster there noted that Merriam-Webster gives a “first known use” date of 1937 for alakazam. My copy of the compact edition of the OED (a 1985 reprint of the 1971 edition) doesn’t list the word at all, and neither does Oxford Dictionaries Online.

Hence my questions above.

Best Answer

OED Online offers a comprehensive etymology for alakazam. It says that it is apparently an arbitrary formation, invented to sound like a word in an unspecified foreign language, with the intention of creating an air of exoticism and mystery.

For the magical exclamation, OED says that it is perhaps approximately suggested by abracadabra.

The earliest form of the word is alagazam and it is suggested by the following (facetious) use in a street name (in the Daily evening bulletin, San Francisco, 1881):

Camp Capitola. Description of a New Seaside Resort in Santa Cruz County... The party who laid out the streets..gave vent to his facetious bent in naming them. Glancing at the names..are seen Fishbone avenue, Alagazam street, Rat Tail alley and Soda Water avenue.

OED also gives early examples in which this expression (in various spellings) is used facetiously with relation to the use of foreign words and phrases in English linguistic contexts with the intention to impress or to create an air of sophistication:

At this point the conversation was interrupted by the tones of a deep, rich bass voice belonging to a gentleman, who sat directly behind the alagazam idiot: ‘Asinus, asini, asiniorum’.

1884 Hawaiian Monthly May 119/2

I ain't had a square meal sence. Been fillin' up on Charley horse rusies, sooflay de allakazam, an' all them French dishes.

1896 N.Y. Tribune 24 May 17/6

OED also adds that the form Alagazam is also attested earlier in popular music, earliest as the title of composition first released as a ragtime piano score and subsequently published with lyrics:

The theme and title of this composition suggested itself to the writer during a trip to the South where he saw a colored regiment, who, while marking time during drill..were uttering a peculiar refrain which sounded like—Alagazam! Alagazam! Alagazam! Zam! Zam!

1902 A. Holzmann ‘Alagazam!’ Cake Walk, March and Two Step 3

There are also two other examples:

Zam Zam Zam was the title they gave him Zam Zam Zam our mighty Alagazam. With the explanation given by Holzmann for the title of his piece compare the later composition by Harry von Tilzer and Andrew B. Sterling entitled Alagazam to the Music of the Band (1915). With forms showing apparently arbitrary variation in the final syllable (as alakazoop, alakazoo, etc.), compare the following comic song, where a different alteration of Alakazam (apparently presented as though the name of a foreign country, state, or city) features in each successive verse (The Countess of Alagazoop, The Countess of Alagazip, etc.).

1903 A. Holzmann Alagazam. Song. 5

They christen'd a girl somewhere in the world, The Countess of Alagazam. It has been suggested that the expression arose in the medicine shows that toured America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, although contemporary evidence to confirm this appears to be lacking. - 1904 R. Cole Countess of Alagazam 3

1904 R. Cole Countess of Alagazam 3

The earliest example listed in OED for alakazam used as an exclamation imparting supposed magical power, as when performing a trick is from 1902 (as part of an extended magical formula):

It was a wishing-spell, and whoever repeated it could be anywhere or do anything he desired... It read like this: ‘Alakazam Bazazza Ki! Hickory Dickory Dock. Omega Om Opeeka Pi? O Donnerwetter Hoch!’

1902 Sun (Baltimore) 30 Mar. 12/1

There is also another possible origin from Arabic but there isn't much evidence.

In the book Haggard Hawks and Paltry Poltroons: The Origins of English in Ten Words (by Paul Anthony Jones), it is mentioned that there is a popular folk etymology claiming that the word is somehow derived from the Arabic al qasam, meaning 'the oath', in fact the true origin of alakazam is considered a mystery.

It is also mentioned in the book Magic Words: A Dictionary (By Craig Conley):

This word has its roots in an Arabic incantation.133 A similar-sounding Arabic phrase, Al Qasam, means "oath."

Because Alakazam is a proper name, it may have originally been used as a magic word invoking the powers of a particular person named Alakazam.134

Alakazam has also been traced to a Hindu word meaning "flawless" and a spell intended "to stave off pain while performing some great act of physical endurance."135

133 John Skoyles and Dorion Saga, Up Ann Dragons (2002)
134 Terry O'Connor, "Word for Word," PlateauPress.com (2004)
135 TheMagicCafe.com (2005)

The book Magic Words: A Dictionary offers much more details about alakazam and all other magic words/phrases. It also gives an explanation about the word Ala which is part of Alakazam and some other magic words.

Ala not only appears in several magic words (like alakazam, alakazee, a-la peanut butter sandwiches, and alikazoola) but also can be a magic word on its own. Ala is the name of a dangerous demon that envelopes people, mentioned in antiquated Mesopotamian magical texts.

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