Locus-Pocus

My locus
My focus
My wand of hocus-pocus.
—Dennis Miller, The Rant Zone (2001)

The word locus means “place,” so locus-pocus conjures a place where magic happens.

This phrase is a variation of the magic phrase hocus pocus.

In Literature:

Julia Oliver, Music of Falling Water (2001)

Our Magic Words: A Dictionary is now available in Kindle format.

The Power, the Magic, and the Mystery of the Word

"Opening it entirely at random -- to any page, any paragraph, any sentence -- I feel at once in the presence of the miraculous, awakened once again to the power, the magic and the mystery of the word." —Jonathan Yardley, describing Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory.

Inuck-Ch-Uck

This is a magic word of transformation spoken by the character Apache Chief in the television series The All-New Super Friends Hour (1977).

Good Questions

Jonathan Jones wonders if being greedy for meaning kills the life of language. "Whereas to go with the sounds and crystallizations of the language is to be alive to the magic and revelatory moments?"

Ha-Ya-Ba-Ra-La

Origins:  The magic word ha-ya-ba-ra-la is of Indian origin.

Facts:  This word is the equivalent to abracadabra.  It was popularized by children’s writer Sukumar Roy (d. 1923).

In Literature:

Sukumar Roy, Ha-Ya-Ba-Ra-La (1928)

(Un)dead Languages

Here's an article about (un)dead languages: 10 mysterious undeciphered scripts.