abracadabra

/ˌæbɹəkəˈdæbɹə/

From Late Latin abracadabra, a word used in magical writings, of unknown origin. Relationships have been suggested with Abraxas (a Gnostic deity), and with various Aramaic or Hebrew terms עַבְרָא כְּדַבְרָא (avra kedavra, literally “what was said has come to pass”), עַבְדָא כְּדַבְרָא (avda kedavra, literally “what was said has been done”); אַרְבַּע-אֶחַד-אַרְבַּע (arba-eḥad-arba, literally “four-one-four”), but there is little supporting evidence.

unk

unknown

Where is the necessity of this provision in the Constitution? […] Can anyone believe that we, by any amendments of ours, by any of our scribbling on that parchment, by any amulet, any legerdemain—charm—Abrecadabra—of ours can prevent our sons from doing the same thing—that is, from doing as they please, just as we are doing as we please? It is impossible. Who can bind posterity?

1851, Hugh A. Garland, quoting John Randolph of Roanoke, “The Virginia Convention—Every Change is Not Reform”, in The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke, volume II, New York: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 329:

With a quiet bank holiday afternoon to fill, the Mill yesterday dug out the old magic kit, brushed the cobwebs off its top hat and practiced a few abracadabras.

2012 August 28, Georgina Turner, The Guardian:

A use of the mystical term ‘abracadabra’, supposed to work as part of a healing charm or a magical spell; any spell or incantation making use of the word.

I don’t know all the theoretical abracadabra about how it works, I’m only its pilot.

Astrology was not specifically banned in the statutes against witchcraft, but so long as its technicalities remained abracadabra to the lay public there was always a risk that the practitioner might find himself arrested for sorcery.

1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society 2012, page 335:

Mumbo jumbo; obscure language or technicalities; jargon.

wartaal

mumbo jumbo, obscure language or technicalities, jargon — see also mumbo jumbo, jargon


abracadabra

/ˌæbɹəkəˈdæbɹə/

unknown

Next, the conjuror filled a glass with water from a big jug and then covered the tumbler with a cloth. "Abracadabra," he cried and crumpled the cloth.

1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 49:

Used to indicate that a magic trick or other illusion has been performed.

abrakadabra

used to indicate that a magic trick or other illusion has been performed


quest

→ Macedonian: квест (kvest)

→ Russian: квест (kvest)

→ Ukrainian: квест (kvest)

From Middle English quest, queste; partly from Anglo-Norman queste, Old French queste (“acquisition, search, hunt”), and partly from their source, Latin quaesta (“tribute, tax, inquiry, search”), noun use of quaesita, the feminine past participle of quaerere (“to ask, seek”).

der

Cease your quest of love.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

Everything I have done pales in comparison to what I am about to achieve. I am on a quest... a quest for the most revered icon in Klingon history. An icon that predates the Klingon Empire, an icon more sacred than the Torch of G'boj -- More revered than Sabak's armor, and more coveted than the Emperor's crown!

1995, “The Sword of Kahless”, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, season 4, episode 8, spoken by Kor, →OCLC:

In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.” His quest leads him around the world to study a variety of suspect zoonoses—animal-hosted pathogens that infect humans.

2013 January 16, Katie L. Burke, “Ecological Dependency”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 1, archived from the original on 2017-02-09, page 64:

A journey or effort in pursuit of a goal (often lengthy, ambitious, or fervent); a mission.

(video games) A task that a player may complete in order to gain a reward or advance the story.

to rove in quest of game, of a lost child, of property, etc.

The act of seeking, or looking after anything; attempt to find or obtain; search; pursuit.


quest

en-verb

quest (third-person singular simple present quests, present participle questing, simple past and past participle quested)

quests (present singular third-person)
questing (participle present)
quested (participle past)
quested (past)

Next day we quested in search of our caravan, and after some pains recovered it.

1634, Thomas Herbert, Description of the Persian Monarchy now beinge the Orientall Indyes, Iles and other ports of the Greater Asia and Africk:

(transitive) To search for something; to seek.


once upon a time

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-once upon a time.wav

Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived a beautiful princess.

There was once upon a time a charcoal-burner who had a son, and he was also a charcoal-burner.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 308:

Once upon a time, there was a Goblin Queen
And she lived in a grand palace...

2023, A. C. MacDonald, Twistwood Tales (comic), Andrews McMeel, →ISBN, page 138:

A long time ago; at some time in the past (a traditional beginning of children's stories, especially fairy tales).

agwa

traditional beginning of children’s stories, especially fairy tales

iq̇o da ara iq̇o ra, ɣvtis uḳetesi ra ikneboda

იყო და არა იყო რა, ღვთის უკეთესი რა იქნებოდა


red herring

en-noun

red herring (plural red herrings or red herring)

red herrings (plural)
red herring (plural)

(figurative): One possible origin of the idiom was that red herring were used to train dogs to track scents. This was true, but the modern meaning of a false trail may have been popularized in a news story by English journalist William Cobbett, c. 1805, in which he claimed that as a boy he used a red herring (a cured and salted herring) to mislead hounds following a trail; the story served as an extended metaphor for the London press, which had earned Cobbett's ire by publishing false news accounts regarding Napoleon. The OED has another possible earlier origin in the legacy of clergyman Jasper Mayne in 1672 when he misled a servant by leaving him "Somewhat that would make him Drink after his Death" in a large trunk. When the trunk was opened, the contents were found to be red herring.
(soldier): An allusion to soldiers' red uniforms; soldier is, reciprocally, a slang term for the fish.

neither fish, flesh, nor good red herring

red herring prospectus
red herring prospectus


deus ex machina

deus ex machina (plural dei ex machina or dei ex machinis or deus ex machinas)

dei ex machina (plural)
dei ex machinis (plural)
deus ex machinas (plural)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-deus ex machina.wav

Unadapted borrowing from Latin deus ex māchinā (literally “god from a machine [i.e., a device, scaffolding, contrivance]”), a calque of Ancient Greek ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός (apò mēkhanês theós).

ubor

god from a machine 􂀿i.e., a device, scaffolding, contrivance􂁀

calque

ἀπὸ μηχανῆς θεός

I was going to wait for Monsieur Hyppolyte and, like a craven, hand the whole thing over to him. Let the deus ex machina fly in out of the clouds...

1959, Mary Stewart, chapter XVII, in Nine Coaches Waiting, M. S. Mill Company, page 268:

(historical, literary) A deity in Greek and Roman drama who was brought in by stage machinery to intervene in a difficult situation (i.e., to resolve a crisis, or untangle issues surrounding it, a character logically expected to do so).


magic wand

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-magic wand.wav

A wand, usually made of wood, that is used to perform magic.


love triangle

/ˈlʌv ˌtɹaɪ.æŋɡəl/

La Battaglia di Legnano is a patriotic melodrama with a love triangle theme included.

1961 December 12, The Times, p.5 col. F:

By placing Max and Onno in a love triangle with Ada, Mr. Mulisch achieves an emotional depth that recalls Francois Truffaut's classic film “Jules and Jim.”

1997 January 5, Jack Miles, “On a Mission From God”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

A situation in which two suitors vie or compete for the love of the same person.

liefdesdriehoek

situation in which two people vie for the love of a third


open sesame

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
Antoine Galland
One Thousand and One Nights

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!.


hamartia

en-noun

hamartia (usually uncountable, plural hamartias)

/ˌhæˌmɑɹˈtiː.ə/

/ˌhɑːˌmɑɹˈtiː.ə/

From Ancient Greek ἁμαρτία (hamartía, “tragic failure, sinful nature”), from the verb ἁμαρτάνω (hamartánō, “to miss the mark”).

der

Creon's main hamartia was his excessive pride.

Understanding hamartia as “ignorance of the injurious act,” Lacan distinguishes Greek tragedy from the Renaissance version on the basis that the latter supplants hamartia with the hero's privileged knowledge.

2006, David Ratmoko, On Spectrality: Fantasies of Redemption in the Western Canon, Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 71:

The plot and the tragic figure at its center, destroyed through an act of hamartia, should be tailored to the production of pity and fear. Oedipus is not so much a person as he is a hamartia delivery system, a moving, empty center within the motions of the play, who through his vulnerability to hamartia and its disastrous consequences reveals the pitiable and the fearful to the audience.

2008, Daniel Greenspan, The Passion of Infinity: Kierkegaard, Aristotle and the Rebirth of Tragedy, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 81:

But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low.

2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years […] ”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport):

(Greek drama) The tragic flaw of the protagonist in a literary tragedy.


cliffhanger

From cliff + hanger, evoking the image of someone left hanging from a cliff, thereby having an uncertain fate.
The term "cliffhanger" is considered to have originated with the serialised version of Thomas Hardy's "A Pair of Blue Eyes", published in Tinsley's Magazine in the 1870s, in which the character Henry Knight is left hanging off of a cliff. It was inspired by a real life story from his wife Emma's childhood, when she had to rescue one of her school friends from a similar position.

This presidential election is such a cliffhanger. Will it be the rising star Dmitry "Obamovich" Medvedev? Or the veteran Gennady "McCainovich" Zyuganov?

February 28 2008, Timothy Garton Ash, “Russia has run rings round the west”, in Guardian, retrieved 2009-02-02:

(by extension) An outcome which is awaited with keen anticipation, especially one which is delayed for a period of time or which is not known until the last minute.


deathtrap

(literature) A plot device where a villain in a story puts a hero in an elaborate dangerous situation for the purposes of attempting a sadistic murder.


unobtainium

en-noun

unobtainium (countable and uncountable, plural unobtainiums)

From unobtain(able) + -ium (suffix typical of names of atomic elements), modelled after uranium and titanium.

suffix

Coordinate term: adamantium

Thus the invention of high temperature fuels will enable us to consider cores which are radiation cooled; such cores would be surrounded by large tanks (cooled by water) which in turn would be penetrated by beam holes. The beam holes themselves would probably have to be made of "unobtanium". (This "unobtanium" is a word coined at Atomics International to describe the material needed to make reactor projects feasible.) In between the radiation cooled reactors and the water cooled reactors is a regime suitable for liquid metal (including boiling liquid) cooled reactors. Once again "unobtanium" is needed.

1962, Charles N. Kelber, “Research Reactors”, in Earl W. Phelan, editor, Current Trends in Nuclear Power: A Symposium Sponsored by the University of Arizona in Cooperation with Argonne National Laboratory: Tucson, Arizona, February 26 – March 12, 1962, Argonne, Ill.: Argonne National Laboratory, →OCLC, page 17, column 2:

In order to illustrate some of the features of data processing under ideal conditions, a set of simulated data was generated and is presented in the last four columns of Table II. The hypothetical material is called Unobtainium.

[1978 September, Lynn C. Rogers, Ahid D. Nashif, “Computerized Processing and Empirical Processing of Viscoelastic Material Property Data and Preliminary Constrained Layer Damping Treatment Design”, in The Shock and Vibration Bulletin (Bulletin; 48, part 2 (Isolation and Damping, Impact, Blast)), Washington, D.C.: The Shock and Vibration Information Center, Naval Research Laboratory, →OCLC, page 26, column 2:

The names of materials presently used in aerospace applications are familiar: magnesium, aluminum, titanium, and so on. Propulsion scientists call the ideal material for turbine engines "Unobtainium," because it does not exist.

As early as 1969, during the initial Phase A studies, Lockheed had taken the initiative in proposing a two-stage fully-reusable design with both stages built of aluminum and using silica tiles for thermal protection. [...] Though that company indeed was in the forefront in developing such tiles, they were items for laboratory research. A design that specified their use had no more intrinsic credibility than one that proposed to use the miracle metals Unobtanium and Wishalloy.

1999, T[homas] A. Heppenheimer, “A Shuttle to Fit the Budget”, in The Space Shuttle Decision: NASA’s Search for a Reusable Space Vehicle (The NASA History Series; NASA SP-4221), Washington, D.C.: Office of Policy and Plans, NASA History Office, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, →OCLC, page 331:

This is not a Tom Tomorrow Bike, made of NASA unobtainiums and employing warp drives that have yet to be invented. It could be built as soon as the production technology is put on the line and powered-up, because all the vehicle technology is proven, off-the-shelf stuff.

2002 February, Kevin Cameron, “Supercharged: It’s Good to B-King”, in Cycle World, volume 41, number 2, New York, N.Y.: Hachette Filipacchi Magazines, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 38, column 2:

A fictional material or component which, if it existed, would enable one to easily solve a hard problem.

難得素 /难得素

fictional component or material which would enable one to easily solve a hard problem


hey presto

(British) Used by stage magicians, when performing a magic trick.


time bomb

Even so, they managed to morph the recent European parliamentary elections into a time bomb and plant it under their country’s own future.

2014 June 6, Françoise Fressoz, “France’s Ticking Time Bomb”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

Someone must explain to Sunak about the time bomb ticking beneath his £1,000 loafers.

2023 May 31, Nigel Harris, “Comment: GBR now! We have no Plan B”, in RAIL, number 984, page 3:

The pandemic preparation timebomb detonated to devastating effect; a number of other timebombs are on the shortest of fuses. The government has now reached a state of perfect vicious cycle, when the only thing worse than the things it does are all the things it didn’t get round to doing.

2023 June 30, Marina Hyde, “The tide is coming in fast on Rishi Sunak – and it’s full of sewage”, in The Guardian:

(figuratively) A situation that threatens to have disastrous consequences at some future time.


flashback

→ German: Flashback

→ Spanish: flashback

→ Norwegian: flashback

→ Portuguese: flashback

(authorship) A dramatic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological flow of a narrative.

salt enrere

a dramatic device in which an earlier event is inserted into the normal chronological flow of a narrative


hocus-pocus

/ˌhəʊkəs ˈpəʊkəs/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-hocus-pocus.wav

Archbishop of Canterbury
Jesus
John Tillotson
Robert Ibbitson

The interjection and noun are derived from made-up pseudo-Latin magical incantations used by conjurers (formerly called “jugglers”) such as “hocus pocus, tontus talontus, vade celeriter jubeo” (with a particular 17th-century conjurer adopting Hocus Pocus as his name) and “hax pax max Deus adimax”. The suggestion that the term is a corruption of words from the Roman Catholic liturgy of the Eucharist, “hoc est enim corpus meum” (“this is my [i.e., Jesus’s] body”), was made in a sermon by the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Tillotson (1630–1694), but is not generally accepted.
The verb is derived from the noun.

nb...

That is, the Lord doth Avenge the Blood of the Innocent upon the Inhabitants of the Earth: This Book is Profitable to bee Read by All Judges of Assizes, before They Passe the Sentence of Condemnation against Poor People, who are Accused for Witchcraft; it is also Profitable for All Sorts of People to Read who Desire Knowledge.

dwelling in Simithfield neer Hosier Lane End

Containing Fifty-four Sermons and Discourses, on Several Occasions. Together with the Rule of Faith. Being All that were Published by His Grace Himself, and Now Collected into One Volume. To which is Added, an Alphabetical Table of the Principal Matters.

A phrase used (by a stage magician, etc.) as a magical incantation to bring about some change: abracadabra, hey presto.


pay-off

At the current monthly payment level, it'll take 32 more months to reach pay-off.

A payment in full; the state of having been paid in full.


retcon

A blend of retroactive + continuity. The term retroactive continuity was popularized by comics writer Roy Thomas, who was known for writing superhero comic books set decades in the past such as All-Star Squadron, and attributes it to an anonymous source.

TLC: What do you say to the Legion fans who have become disenfranchised with the series due to its various retcons and reboots?

2003, Glen Cadigan, The Legion Companion, page 152:

Fans talk of retcon—retroactive continuity—giving information that explains an earlier event, especially seeming plot contradictions or lacunae.

2005, Rhonda Wilcox, Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, page 9:

It's a little trick called retcon, short for "retroactive continuity," […]
Yet I'm unsure even Millar is fully aware of the power given him by the retcon.

2006, Glenn Yeffeth, editor, The Man from Krypton: A Closer Look at Superman, page 155:

A situation, in a soap opera or other fiction, in which a new storyline explains or changes a previous event or attaches a new significance to it.


dreamworld

From dream + world. Compare West Frisian dreamwrâld (“dreamworld”), Dutch droomwereld, dromenwereld (“dreamworld”), German Traumwelt (“dreamworld”), Danish drømmeverden (“dreamworld”), Swedish drömvärld (“dreamworld”).

At midnight they left the air-conditioned dream-world and entered the oven of the street.

1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 358:

An imaginary world, such as experienced while dreaming.


dangler

/ˈdæŋɡlə(ɹ)/

Similarly, participles ending in “ing” often cause danglers in scientific writing: […]

2014, Silvia M. Rogers, Mastering Scientific and Medical Writing: A Self-help Guide, page 43:

(grammar, informal) A dangling modifier, especially a dangling participle.


presto change-o

"It doesn't just go one, two, three, presto, change-o, you're cured."

1975, Laura Keane Zametkin Hobson, Consenting Adult, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 85:

1984, Audrey Wood, Presto Change-O, Child's Play, →ISBN:

Then tell them to read the sentence on the front of each flap, open the flap, and read the sentence inside. Presto Change-o! Common nouns are transformed into proper nouns, right before nouns, right before their eyes!

2001, Karen Kellaher, Writing Skills Made Fun: Parts of Speech, →ISBN, page 13:

But then that little psychopath Willie Bosket murdered a couple of subway riders for the hell of it when he was fifteen and -- presto change-o! -- a new law was born.

2006, Peter Blauner, Slipping Into Darkness: A Novel, Little, Brown, →ISBN, page 3:

(informal) Alternative form of presto chango


happy ending

And how was this happy ending to be brought about? Why, by this very eaſy and trite expedient; to wit, by reforming Lovelace, and marrying him to Clariſſa.

1784, The Novelist's Magazine, volume XV, London: Harrison and Co., page 1263, column 1:

The heroine was killed, and since then the happy ending has only been preserved in an appendix in the play.

1827 June 8, The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser, page 4, column 3:

Life is not to be conceived on the analogy of a melodrama in which the hero and heroine go through incredible misfortunes for which they are compensated by a happy ending.

1930, Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness:

Death ends all things and so is the comprehensive conclusion of a story, but marriage finishes it very properly too and the sophisticated are ill-advised to sneer at what is by convention termed a happy ending.

1944, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 1, in The Razor’s Edge […], 1st American edition, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Co., →OCLC, section i, page 1:

Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?

1957 July 6, What’s Opera, Doc?, spoken by Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc):

Modern romance, like Greek tragedy, celebrates the mystery of dismemberment, which is life in time. The happy ending is justly scorned as a misrepresentation; for the world, as we know it, as we have seen it, yields but one ending: death, disintegration, dismemberment, and the crucifixion of our heart with the passing of the forms that we have loved.

1968, Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 2nd edition, London: Fontana Press, published 1993, page 25:

And she said: / "Don't you know that storybook loves, / Always have a happy ending."

1987, “Storybook Love”, Willy DeVille (music):

(literature) A clichéd conclusion in which all loose ends are tied up and all main characters are content.


happily ever after

en-noun

happily ever after (plural happily ever afters)

A story with such a happy ending, such as a romance novel or fairy tale.


MacGuffin

Alfred Hitchcock
MacGuffin#History_and_use
Ulster

Used by Alfred Hitchcock, as an arbitrary Scottish surname. The actual name comes from Ulster: Mc- (“son of”) + Irish dubh (“black”) + Irish Fionn (literally “fairheaded”).
See also Wikipedia's MacGuffin § History and use.

af

" […] But we wound up realizing you really can't top yourself. You just tell a different story and hope the new MacGuffin is as compelling as the last MacGuffin."

2000, Steven Spielberg, Lester D. Friedman, Brent Notbohm, Steven Spielberg: Interviews:

A paleontologist lately returned from an expedition to Wyoming, where he unearthed the bones of the first brontosaurus (and supplied guns to the Indians on behalf of the Foreign Office, which had succeeded in its policy of balkanizing the North American continent) Mallory comes into possession of the MacGuffin during a Derby Day encounter with Byron's daughter (and Babbage's protégée) Ada. Thereafter he is hounded by a whole rogue's gallery of villains bent on reclaiming the MacGuffin.

(narratology) A plot element or other device used to catch the audience's attention and maintain suspense, but whose exact nature has fairly little influence over the storyline.


magic carpet

Have you ever been, have you ever been, to Electric Ladyland? / The magic carpet waits for you, so don't you be late

1968, Jimi Hendrix (lyrics and music), “Have You Ever Been (To Electric Ladyland)”, in Electric Ladyland, performed by The Jimi Hendrix Experience:

(fiction) A carpet capable either of magical flight, or instantaneous transport from one place to another, used as a means of travel.


shazaam

and before you can say "Shazaam!" he is translated into Sgt. Moffatt of the Laguna Hills security force.

1968, Michael T. Malloy, The Art of Retirement, page 74:

Suddenly, you find yourself worrying about the strength of the dollar versus the euro and — shazaam — you switch from parasympathetic to sympathetic far faster than you wanted.

2004, Robert M. Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers, page 125:


alakazam

Unknown, with various theories ranging from spontaneous usage as a nonsense chant, to less likely sources from Arabic, Latin, and Hindi.
Some etymologists suggest an origin from Arabic القَسَم (al-qasam, “the oath”).

A magic word used in conjuring; presto, shazaam.


Mary Sue

From the name of an intentionally over-the-top character in the 1973 Star Trek parody fan fiction A Trekkie's Tale by Paula Smith.

Bella may be a Mary Sue, but if we don't identify with her, and even if we do, there's no other interpretive place for us in the universe.

2010 August 3, Ta-Nehisi Coates, “A Whole New World”, in The Atlantic:

She was a mashup of ideals that made her feel very fake; a Mary Sue who was popular, pretty, athletic, artistic, all the while loved by everyone who met her.

2015 January 20, Sian Cain, “Why a non-white Nancy Drew could be amazing”, in The Guardian:

So here's a radical suggestion: instead of being concerned about whether her Mary Sue flawlessness is a problem, why not, just this once, enjoy it for what it is?

2015 December 19, Tasha Robinson, “With Star Wars' Rey, we've reached Peak Strong Female Character”, in The Verge:

There is one, and only one, previously unheard of flaw that keeps Nanase from being the merriest of Mary Sues. That flaw is...

2022 August 18, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive - EGS:NP (webcomic), Comic for Thursday, Aug 18, 2022:

(fandom slang, usually derogatory) A fictional character, usually female, whose implausible talents and likeability weaken the story.


plot device

An element introduced into a story, film, etc. to advance its plot.


eucatastrophe

From eu- + catastrophe, coined by English author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien in 1944 as part of a letter: see quotation.

coinage

But at the story of the little boy (which is a fully attested fact of course) with its apparent sad ending and then its sudden unhoped-for happy ending, I was deeply moved and had that peculiar emotion we all have – though not often. […] For it I coined the word ‘eucatastrophe’: the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears (which I argued it is the highest function of fairy-stories to produce).

[1944 November 7, J[ohn] R[onald] R[euel] Tolkien, “88. From a Letter to Christopher Tolkien[,] 28 October 1944 (FS 58)”, in Humphrey Carpenter with the assistance of Christopher Tolkien, editors, Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1981, →ISBN; The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien, Houghton Mifflin paperback edition, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000, →ISBN, page 100:

Let us hymn the small but journal wonders
of Nature and of households, and then finish
on a serio-comic note with legends
of ultimate eucatastrophe,
regeneration beyond the waters.

1969 June 5, W. H. Auden, “Epistle to a Godson”, in The New York Review, issue:

The "problem" of T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot comes partly from our post-Christian sense of a world where Tolkien's eucatastrophes never happen, and partly from the way we write biography.

1988, Alzina Stone Dale, “Prologue: J. Alfred Prufrock among the Prophets”, in T. S. Eliot: The Philosopher Poet (The Wheaton Literary Series), Wheaton, Ill.: Harold Shaw, →ISBN; T. S. Eliot: The Philsopher-Poet, Authors Guild Backprint.com edition, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, 2004, →ISBN, page 5:

Literary unity demands that once a eucatastrophe happens it must be accepted as part of the story rather than as an arbitrary whim of the author.

2015, John J. Davenport, quoting Eleanor Helms, “The Virtues of Ambivalence: Wholeheartedness as Existential Telos and the Unwillable Completion of Narravives”, in John Lippitt, Patrick Stokes, editors, Narrative, Identity and the Kierkegaardian Self, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, page 159:

(narratology) A catastrophe (dramatic event leading to plot resolution) that results in the protagonist's well-being.

eucatastrophe

catastrophe that results in the protagonist's well-being


analepsis

en-noun

analepsis (countable and uncountable, plural analepses)

From Ancient Greek ἀνάληψις (análēpsis).

A form of flashback in which earlier parts of a narrative are related to others that have already been narrated


Chekhov's gun

Calque of Russian Чеховское ружьё (Čexovskoje ružʹjó). The principle was articulated by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov and reported in various forms.

cal

Чеховское ружьё

The episode of the sun-god's island is the Odyssey's equivalent of Chekhov's gun, announced in the poem's earliest lines as the occasion of the companions' downfall and anticipated ever since.

2005, John Miles Foley, A companion to ancient epic, →ISBN, page 324:

He is Chekhov's gun on the wall, destined to go off at the crucial moment.

2007, John Updike, Due considerations: essays and criticism, →ISBN, page 336:

An element that is introduced early in the story whose significance to the plot does not become clear until later.


reset button

But after a year of sagging ratings, Dallas hit the reset button, by having Pam wake up to see Bobby, very much alive, lathering up in their shower. The entire 1985–86 season, including Bobby's death, had been a bad dream of Pam's, and now that she was awake, Dallas could go on the way it should have, with the previous year's events effectively wiped away.

2016, David Bianculli, The Platinum Age of Television […] , Anchor, →ISBN, page 140:

Voyager the show ambles and meanders just like Voyager the ship, hypothetically exploring new territory but actually doomed to retreads and consequence-free episodic storytelling (heavy on what fans came to call “the Reset Button” that restores the status quo), exacerbated by overuse of technobabble.

2020, Murray Leeder, “Confessions of an Anti-Fan”, in Robert L. Lively, editor, Exploring Star Trek: Voyager: Critical Essays, McFarland, →ISBN, page 250:

(fiction) A plot device that interrupts continuity in works of fiction, by returning characters and situations to the status quo they held before certain changes were introduced.


shoulder devil

Coordinate term: shoulder angel

A devil representing a person's temptations in works of fiction, portrayed as sitting on one shoulder while a shoulder angel occupies the other.


shoulder angel

An angel representing a person's conscience in works of fiction, portrayed as sitting on one shoulder while a shoulder devil occupies the other.


handwavium

From hand waving + -ium (“the chemical element suffix”).

af

My handwavium was an invented mineral, but - reading up - what about platinum? Could I substitute platinum for handwavium?

2008 February 3, Jacey Bedford <jacey@artisan-harmony.com>, “Handwavium”, in rec.arts.sf.composition (Usenet):

It made no sense to him that their very impossibility was their pleasure. He puzzled over the spacecraft and their handwavium drives. "The thousand and one nights of Scheherazade, told by an engineering student who failed his graduation exams," was his literary judgment.

2008 March, Alexander Jablokov, “The Boarder”, in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, volume 114, number 3, Concord, N.H.: Fantasy House, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9:

She writes romantic fantasy and science fiction, and makes liberal use of the substance known as handwavium.

2012, Imogen Howson, Blood of the Volcano, Cincinnati, Oh.: Samhain Publishing, →ISBN, page 167:

(informal, fiction) Any hypothetical but unobtainable material with desirable engineering properties.


big red button

A real, fictional, or figurative button that controls a function of critical importance and that is usually large and red, ensuring quick identification.


meet cute

Claudette Colbert
Ernst Lubitsch
Gary Cooper

Accidentally coined by German-American film director Ernst Lubitsch (1892–1947), who had difficulty speaking English, to describe the encounter between the characters played by Claudette Colbert and Gary Cooper in the 1938 film Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife.

If this is a distortion of reality, it is a knowingly utopian gesture, and the wit of such conceits lies in placing in tension the ideal with the real and so being more than a series of fancy ‘meet cutes’: […]

1989, Bruce Babington, Peter William Evans, Affairs to Remember: The Hollywood Comedy of the Sexes, Manchester, New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 11:

The hunt for love saturates Western culture. […] Romantic comedies have characters discover one another serendipitously, called "meet-cutes." The lead clumsily spills a drink on his future love interest, setting off a chain of events to love. Meet-cutes affirm the idea that possibility is all around us: love can happen anywhere, at anytime, and with anyone.

2013, Jaime Woo, “How to Find Love on Grindr (if You Hafta)”, in Meet Grindr: How One App Changed the Way We Connect, Canada: [Lulu.com], →ISBN, page 108, column 1:

In some respects, it might be too faithful to the genre it savages; as in many real rom-coms, the energy flags during the plot’s backstretch, and audiences may share the drifting interest of Kyle (Bill Hader) and Karen (Ellie Kemper), who come to regret ever asking Joel and Molly to chronicle their meet-cute.

2014 June 26, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2017-12-07:

When Wade first crosses paths with Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), the ass-kicking fellow “gunter” (or egg hunter) with whom he becomes infatuated, the pair’s meet cute is predicated on the swapping of favorite pop-culture quotes.

2018 March 26, A. A. Dowd, “Steven Spielberg Finds Fun, and maybe even a Soul, in the Pandering Pastiche of Ready Player One”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2018-05-31:

Café Pick Me Up was a cosy little place with a low pressed-metal ceiling, crammed full of tiny tables, with French cafe chairs and mellow lighting. If you were to write a romcom featuring a meet cute, you’d set it there.

2021 December 26, Alys Fowler, “My winter of love: I was homesick in New York. The quiet Danish poet was just what I was longing for”, in The Guardian:

(narratology, informal) A situation in a film, television series, etc., in which a potential romantic couple meet for the first time in a way that is considered adorable, amusing, or cute.


tragic flaw

When a heroine's tragic flaw takes the form of uncontrollable love for an outlaw, the paths of momentary glory can lead but to defeat.

1948 May 31, Harold V. Cohen, "'Green Grass of Wyoming'" (film review), Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. 28 (retrieved 5 July 2012)

If the jury, who begin their final deliberations tomorrow, find the black All-American hero guilty of murdering his white wife, Nicole Brown, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, they will have concluded that he succumbed to the oldest tragic flaw in the book, the green-eyed monster of jealousy.

1995 October 1, John Carlin, “OJ's guilt is a black and white choice”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2012-07-05:

The control-freak instinct runs too deep. . . . This runs the risk of becoming a tragic flaw.

2002 February 25, J. F. O. McAllistair, “Blair the Bungee Jumper”, in Time:

(chiefly literary criticism) A personality trait or other characteristic of a real or fictional individual which is immoral, destructive, or otherwise faulty and which leads to the ruin or profound suffering of that individual.


balonium

From baloney + -ium. See baloney (“nonsense”).

I assumed starship fuel (antimatter or balonium) could be produced from electricity with perfect conversion, so it cost exactly what electricity did — good enough for the one-digit-or-so accuracy needed.

1990, Analog science fact, science fiction: Volume 110:

Suppose that we have a Geiger counter and we are able to make measurements, during a ten hour period, of the balonium sample.

1993, American Statistical Association, Proceedings of the Section on Statistical Education:

The data in Table 7.7 were taken for the highly radioactive element balonium-245.

2004, Mark T. Holtzapple, W. Dan Reece, Concepts in Engineering:

List of fictional elements, materials, isotopes and subatomic particles


bed trick

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bed trick.wav

A plot device in traditional literature and theatre where a character begins sexual activity with someone else, then steals away after the lights are off, allowing another character to continue instead.


bibbidi-bobbidi-boo

Originated in the 1948 novelty song “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo”, used in the 1950 film Cinderella.

(informal) A light-hearted magical incantation.

Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo
Cinderella (1950 film)


horse and hattock

From the Scottish folk tradition that this is the cry that fairies make when they leave a place.

...but one of their number being, it seems, a little more bold and confident than his companion, said Horse and hattock with my top!' and immediately they all saw the top lifted up from the ground, but could not see which way it was carried, by reason of a cloud of dust which was raised at the same time.

1835, Fraser's magazine for town and country - Volume 11, page 219:

Archroy had noticed that his old Morris Minor, which his wife described as 'an eyesore', was no longer upon its blocks in the garage but seemed to have cried horse and hattock and been carried away by the fairies.

1992, Robert Rankin, The Antipope, →ISBN, page 18:

The Miscellanies of John Aubrey (1626-97) noted two cases involving the phrase "Horse and Hattock" and fairy levitation.

2001, Lizanne Henderson, Edward J. Cowan, Scottish Fairy Belief: A History, →ISBN, page 37:

A call that invokes the fairies to transport someone or something.


Belly of the Whale

Coined by Joseph Campbell in 1949. Probably an allusion to the book of Jonah in the Bible, in which Jonah was swallowed by a great fish.

A story element which represents the final separation from a hero's known world and self.


abracadabrangle

A representation of the word "abracadabra" in the visual form of a triangle, used as an amulet or charm.


love quadrangle

en-noun

love quadrangle (plural love quadrangles)

(rare) A situation in which three people vie for the love of a fourth person.


hey pass

(obsolete) A conjurer's exclamation on performing a magic trick; hey presto.


love rectangle

But the breakup and awkward love rectangle were a recurring topic in Google's gossip mill, adding even more tension.

2022, Mark Bergen, Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination, Penguin, →ISBN:


phlebotinum

(science fiction) A fictional material used by authors to develop a plot requiring a material with properties not possessed by any real material.


plot coupon

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-plot coupon.wav

[…] pain to see Clute single-handedly tackle multi-volume fantasy extrusion-product, with its flimsy plot coupons and its stale eucatastrophes.

2004, Foundation, volume 33, numbers 90-92, page 126:

(fandom slang) An object sought by a character in a story in order to achieve some objective, having little purpose beyond advancing the plot.


bury your gays

(fandom slang) A fiction trope where gay characters tend to die or generally meet an untimely demise.


love polygon

/ˈlʌv ˈpɒlɪɡən/

This entangled love polygon (for it is far larger than a triangle) would seem to be at the heart of the conflict among the characters.6 Clearly, unrequited love, love triangles, intense fascinations, the absurdities of love,[…]

2020 November 17, Dianne Rothleder, Fraught Decisions in Plato and Shakespeare, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 43:

A situation in which at least two people vie for the love of another individual.


alien space bats

Coined in the Usenet newsgroup soc.history.what-if.

(fandom slang) An implausible point of divergence from reality, used as a plot device in alternate history.


Truck-kun

What if I was walking across the street when I was summoned, only to be dropped back in front of a speeding truck. Lots of dodgy stories start with Truck-kun, and I don't want mine to end with it.

2022, Dean Henegar, “The Summoned Life”, in Legendary LitRPG: An All Genres LitRPG Anthology, unnumbered page:

While Truck-kun does cause one form of ending—the character is dead in their original world—it's an integral part of the main character's transportation to a new world, one where they can explore, learn, and grow.

2022, Natasha Yglesias, Anime Tarot Deck and Guidebook: Explore the Archetypes, Symbolism, and Magic in Anime, page 29:

So I figure I might as well chuck a "Truck-kun" into my own story too! Gotta get in while the getting's good!!

2023, Shizuki Fujisawa, translated by Cerridwyn Graffham, The Transcendent One-Sided Love of Yoshida the Catch, volume 3, unnumbered page:

(chiefly Japanese fiction, fandom slang, humorous) In the isekai genre, a truck that sets off the plot by hitting the protagonist, transporting them into the fantastical setting (typically by killing them in the real world).


Avada Kedavra

en-verb

Avada Kedavra (third-person singular simple present Avada Kedavras, present participle Avada Kedavra-ing, simple past and past participle Avada Kedavra'd or Avada Kedavraed)

Avada Kedavras (present singular third-person)
Avada Kedavra-ing (participle present)
Avada Kedavra'd (participle past)
Avada Kedavra'd (past)
Avada Kedavraed (participle past)
Avada Kedavraed (past)

Harry Potter
J. K. Rowling
Killing Curse

Verbalization of the incantation of the Killing Curse in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Rowling has stated that it is from Aramaic עַבְדָא כְּדַבְרָא (avda kedavra, literally “what was said has been done”), calling it “the original of abracadabra, which means ‘let the thing be destroyed’”; compare Hebrew עַבְרָא כְּדַבְרָא (avra kedavra, literally “what was said has come to pass”). In fact, a relationship of these terms with abracadabra (of unknown origin) has been suggested, but there is little supporting evidence.

bor

עַבְדָא כְּדַבְרָא

cog

עַבְרָא כְּדַבְרָא

There isn’t much point in trying to attack this, the final installment in the epic saga of Harry Potter; everyone in the civilized world has already seen it, and all of the die-hard HP fans won’t accept even the slightest criticism of the movies, save for the degree to which they differ from the books. However, at the time of this writing, HP-fever has died down and I can now give this movie a fair examination, free from the scornful “avada kedavra-ing” of fanboys and fangirls.

2011 August 16, Kevin Kryah, “Harry ends on a high note”, in Samantha Strong, editor, Cub Reporter, volume 63, number 1, Indianapolis, Ind.: Lawrence Central High School, page 13, column 1:

If Harry Potter was a vicious hooligan, we’d quite happily accept Voldermort^([sic]) Avada-Kedavra-ing him.

2012, Charlie Wilson, A Seriously Useful Author’s Guide to Writing a Marketable Book, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Troubador Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 136:

If I was Harry Potter, I would have Avada Kedavraed your ass straight into hell.

2013, J.C. Daniels [pseudonym; Shiloh Walker], chapter 10, in Broken Blade (Colbana Files), →ISBN, part 1 (Broken):

There are challenges — like Ravenclaw egos, Voldemort’s avada kedavra-ing, the Malfoys’ bullying, the stress of exams and the frigidity of weather which can make lecture halls seem more like igloos — but these challenges become much more manageable when undertaken alongside others with whom one identifies and empathizes.

2013 November 6, David Shuck, “The weather outside doesn’t have to be frightful”, in André Rouillard, editor, The Vanderbilt Hustler, volume 125, number 44, page 6, column 3:

“One day I walked into my classroom to find every single student snoring. The noise…I finally snapped. I waved my hand and turned them all into blue-footed bubis**.” / News traveled across campus quickly, eliciting an immediate response from both faculty and students. / “I love it!” said one professor who wished not to be named. “That’s thinking outside the box! Personally, I would have avada kedavra’d the whole lot of them. But I suppose it’s a start.”

2016 April 1, Skeeter Reeter bo Beeter [pseudonym], “Professor Rewarded for Taking Revenge on Slacking Students”, in The Wilson Bullboard, Chambersburg, Pa.: Wilson College, page 4, columns 2–3:

Voldemort remains a performer throughout the entire series, and his theatricality becomes his predictability (though he learns enough to Avada Kedavra Harry immediately in Deathly Hallows and go through the theatrics after the threat has been nullified).

2018, Irvin Khaytman, “Albus Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix”, in The Life and Lies of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, 2nd edition, Story Spring Publishing, →ISBN:

Theme park lines occupy – or, really, are – a special place in hell, especially the ones in Central Florida, where standing under the Florida sun usually results in enough back sweat to fill a kiddie pool. One place, though, stops us from Avada Kedavra-ing ourselves – the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. With meticulous attention to detail and the Harry Potter canon, Universal engineers have created immersive waiting areas that are just as magically engaging as the ride itself.

2018 August 22–28, “Best Magical Queue”, in Jessica Bryce Young, editor, Best of Orlando 2018 (Orlando Weekly), Orlando, Fla.: Euclid Media Group, page 137:

He is standing again, pacing around the apartment lobby, scared, like some wizard is going to Avada Kedavra him into oblivion.

2019 August 28, Emily Roach, Rebecca Rahme, “Adrian”, in The Uprising, Bloomington, Ind.: iUniverse, →ISBN:

Have faith in yourself, Jane. You are more dangerous than you know. / I tried to believe that. Of course, it would have been easier to believe if not for the fact I had to turn into a deer to duck out of the way of Jones pulling out a wand then firing glowing balls of hellish fire at me. / “You are not going to Avada Kedavra me, Hermione!” I shouted. / Alex engaged Visigoth in battle and it was hard to tell who was winning, since the two thousand-year-old vampire moved faster than the eye could see.

2021, C. T. Phipps, Michael Suttkus, “A Nightmare on Elk Street”, in The Bright Falls Mysteries Saga, Mystique Press, →ISBN:

(transitive, intransitive, humorous) To use the Killing Curse from the Harry Potter series on (someone), causing immediate death.