incantation

incantation

English

Alternative forms

• encantation

Etymology

From Middle English incantacioun, from Old French incantation, from Latin incantatio. More at enchant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /inkænˈteɪʃən/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

incantation (plural incantations)

1. The act or process of using formulas and/or usually rhyming words, sung or spoken, with occult ceremonies, for the purpose of raising spirits, producing enchantment, or creating other magical results.

   Synonym: galdr

   • 2008, “Red Letter Year”, in Red Letter Year‎, performed by Ani Difranco:

     new years eve we dropped mushrooms / and danced around the house / making music with everything that we found / incantation replaced resolution

2. A formula of words used as above.
3. (computing, slang) Any esoteric command or procedure.
   • 1998, John Purcell, Robert Kiesling, Linux: The Complete Reference: Book 1 (page 412)

     The appropriate incantation of route is shown below; the gw keyword tells it that the next argument denotes a gateway.

   • 2005, Kyle Rankin, Linux Multimedia Hacks: Tips & Tools for Taming Images, Audio, and Video:

     There's more than one command incantation to create an AVI. It's all a question of experimenting with the different audio and video codecs.

   • 2017, James Pogran, Learning PowerShell DSC (page 11)

     Servers move from being special snowflakes to being disposable numbers on a list that can be created and destroyed without requiring someone to remember the specific incantation to make it work.

Related terms

• incanter

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *keh₂n-‎ (0 c, 23 e)

Translations

process

Bulgarian: заклинание (bg) n (zaklinanie) Finnish: loitsinta Dutch: bezwering (nl) f, French: incantation (fr) f Greek: επωδή (el) f (epodí) Ancient: ἐπῳδή f (epōidḗ) Latin: incantātiō f, carmen (la) n Maori: mata (mi), karakia Polish: inkantacja (pl) f Romanian: descântare f Russian: чароде́йство (ru) n (čarodéjstvo) Swedish: besvärjelse (sv) c

formula

Chinese: Mandarin: 咒語／咒语 (zh) (zhòuyǔ), 咒文 (zh) (zhòuwén) Classical Nahuatl: tlācatecolōtlahtōlli Dutch: bezwering (nl) f, spreuk (nl) f Finnish: loitsu (fi) French: incantation (fr) f German: Beschwörung (de) f Greek: επωδή (el) f (epodí), (colloquial) ξόρκι (el) n (xórki) Ancient: ἐπῳδή f (epōidḗ) Japanese: 呪い (ja) (のろい, noroi), 呪文 (ja) (じゅもん, jumon) Korean: 주문 (ko) (jumun) Latin: incantamentum n, carmen (la) n Maori: ihi, tapatapa Plautdietsch: Behakjsunk f Portuguese: feitiço (pt) m Romanian: incantație (ro) f, descântec (ro) n Russian: заклина́ние (ru) n (zaklinánije), загово́р (ru) m (zagovór) Swedish: besvärjelse (sv) c

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin incantātiō. Synchronically analysable as incanter +‎ -ation.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.kɑ̃.ta.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

incantation f (plural incantations)

1. incantation

Related terms

• enchanter

Further reading

• “incantation”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.