The Golden Key

A line taken out of context, from our dictionary of magic words:

“It’s the magic word all right, the golden key, the open sesame.” —Keri Hulme, The Bone People (1986)

Yesterday

"[The] past is near us, so near that we almost feel its warmth. That word, yesterday, envelops us in nostalgic echoes, as when we awaken with our sense of time and logic still confused, and the memory of a happy hour lived the day before reverberates in our minds."
—Giorgio de Chirico, Hebdomeros (and other writings)

Romantic

"Romantic! A strange word, pregnant with meanings that seem to come to us from afar. A word that gives rise to suspicions and ambiguities."
—Giorgio de Chirico, Hebdomeros (and other writings)

Memories

"Memories! What a deep resonant word, so evocative and full of feeling! It grips you simply to say it, or even read it."
—Giorgio de Chirico, Hebdomeros

Out of Nowhere

"She looked at Victor expectantly, as if he could conjure up Prosper like he'd magicked Bo out of nowhere." -- The Thief Lord, Cornelia Funke

Syos

A line taken out of context, from our dictionary of magic words:

"Magicians living in the 12th and 13th centuries used Syos as a magical invocation to the cardinal directions."

Delphoï

"A magic word shone in the air like the cross of Constantine and multiplied itself in space to the edge of the horizon like the ads for a toothpaste: Delphoï! Delphoï!"
—Giorgio de Chirico, Hebdomeros

Delphoï of course echoes the site of the Delphic oracle in the classical Greek world.

The Eternal Mainspring

"Hocus pocus, the eternal mainspring of mathematics and metaphysics!"
—Robert Desnos' novel written in a trance state, Liberty or Love!

Dandelions

A line taken out of context, from our dictionary of magic words:

"We blew the fizz off dandelions in order to have wishes come true, or wished upon the first rising star."

A Magic Word Ignites

"Can a thought on its own create fire? There is a fire sleeping all around mankind, hidden, invisible but everywhere. A magic word, perhaps, and in an instant it ignites and consumes the whole world."
—The Angel in the West Window, Gustav Meyrink's novel of the Elizabethan magus John Dee (our own 9th cousin)

To Be "Magic"

A line taken out of context, from our dictionary of magic words:

“To be ‘magic,’ words do not have to have a mysterious sound, an esoteric meaning, or a special history.”

Magic is a Problem of Language

magic is a problem of language
the key
is to understand:
which language?

—Enrique Enriquez

Abracadabra

(See also our earlier post about abracadabra.)

Whoopti-ti-yi-yo

A line taken out of context, from our dictionary of magic words:

“Never knew ‘Whoopti-ti-yi-yo’ qualified as magic words.” —Christopher Stasheff, The Secular Wizard (1995)

A Magic Wand of a Word

We love the phrase "a magic wand of a word" in this sentence:

"Recently, this word 'diagram' has become quite a magic wand of a word in the United States; something like the word 'type' in the 1970s, 'postmodern' in the 1980s, and 'blob' in the 1990s."
—Anthony Vidler, "Architecture's Expanded Field," Constructing a New Agenda

Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas

I am full of my answers,
but orphan of my clues.

(See our previous post about this palindromic magic phrase)

Zing

A line taken out of context, from our dictionary of magic words:

“Zing!—A shimmering ray of sunlight, powerful as a laser beam, flashed.” —Roger George Clark, The Magic Statue (2004)