open sesame
English
Etymology
From its use in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, translating French Sésame, ouvre-toi in Antoine Galland's version of the Ali Baba story in the One Thousand and One Nights, possibly based on an oral Arabic source.
Not, as some have purported, a corruption of Open, says me!.
Pronunciation
Audio (UK) (file)
Phrase
open sesame
- open up (especially referring to doors)
Translations
open up
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Noun
open sesame (plural open sesames)
- Any successful means of achieving a result, especially means that are magical or technical, or otherwise beyond the understanding of most people.
- 1899, William Wallace Cook, “Aquastor”, in Overland Monthly, page 15:
- "The blue topaz was bought by me, from the chieftain of the tribe to which Quacal belongs. It is an ‘open sesame’ to his favor."
- 1905, John Ruskin, The Works of John Ruskin, page lv:
- He who can read a true book aright has an open sesame to audiences with the great and wise of all time.
- 1963, William J. Palmer, Trial Tactics in California, page 57:
- Relevancy not always an open sesame having in mind the over-all authority and discretion of the trial judge.
- 2001 September 24, Gareth McLean, “Sympathy for a devil”, in The Guardian:
- When Mussolini was a young chap, he dabbled with socialism, imagining it to be an open sesame to a better society.
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Translations
successful means of achieving a result
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